Darksoulna 4
by NintegaDeStellar
Summary: When the Midnight Channel appears on Yu Narukami's TV once more, he rounds up the Investigation Team and they go in to save it's latest victim. When inside, Rise is separated from the group, but as luck would have it, she happens to cross paths with a VERY powerful ally. Rise X OC, Yu X Yukiko, Possibly Kanji X Naoto later on.
1. The Crystal Caverns

It had been quite some time since somebody had last appeared on the Midnight Channel. The multiple cases and disappearances had ceased since Yu Narukami had left Inaba roughly three months before the current date. For the most part, life had returned to the norm in the city, but all the same Yu felt saddened at the revelation that he wouldn't be able to meet with his friends (and indeed, girlfriend,) everyday as he had once done. Sure, the main motivation for their meeting was because of the Midnight Channel and the problems it had caused over the course of the year, and the person initiating such crimes was no doubt completely beyond salvation, but in a twisted sort of way, Yu had to thank them. Had they not gone on their spree of kidnapping and murder, Chie, Yosuke, Yukiko and he would never have bonded the way they did, which would not have led to the series of events which their antics entailed. Yu had no qualms with admitting it, but he missed Inaba, and in a strange way, he missed the Midnight Channel.

Yu had made a habit out of checking the TV every rainy night since his year in Inaba. The rainy season had kicked off and there had been many opportunities to watch it, but there was never anything on. In fact, it was around this time that Yu had begun wondering about the futility of staring at the hazy screen each night, knowing full well that the killer had been caught and sealed away. There was no way he'd see anything, was what he told himself.

Until someone finally appeared.

"This tale of mine is a pointless one." Yu's head shot up from the book he was reading as the young male voice echoed eerily from within the confines of the small plastic box. Rising to his feet, his eyes fixed upon the image on-screen, he saw an unidentifiable male wearing a thick set of armour trudging away from the camera, into what seemed to be a large pyramid. "I could walk a thousand miles and not have moved a single step forward. This journey is pointless." A sombre-looking title card appeared behind the man, which read in plain lettering:

"A Journey of Self-Realisation: The Tale of the Elusive Wandering Spirit."

As the image slowly faded away, Yu felt a vibration in his pocket, a feeling he hadn't experienced for quite some time in a situation like this. He raised the offending item, his phone, to his ear, hearing the voice he had been expecting on the other end.

"Hey, were you watching TV right now?! The Midnight Channel's come back on!" Yosuke nearly shouted. "You think there's someone else trying to kill people again?"

"I don't think so. We would have seen his image on the TV beforehand, right? This time he appeared right away." Yu pointed out. It seemed that he hadn't been the only one keeping track of the Midnight Channel all this time.

"Yeah, true… But on top of that, what can we do? We're so far apart and by the time you get here we'd probably be out of time!" True, he had a point. Yu's home and Inaba weren't exactly close together, and furthermore there was no telling where Rise would be, since she herself had taken up her idol business again after Yu had left and was therefore the only other member of the investigation team who was frequently far away from the area. There was also the issue of whether or not they could find the time to get her in before something happened to the TV's captive.

"We need a plan. Everyone's too far apart to get ready on such short notice." Yu rubbed his chin as he threw himself back onto his bed. "I'll give Rise a call in the morning. You focus on getting Chie, Yukiko, Teddie, Kanji and Naoto up to speed."

"Hey, why do you only have to call one person?! You should be the one calling Yukiko in the first place anyway, she's your girlfriend after all, dude!"

"You go to school with them all, right? If you talk to them in the afternoon, I can call Rise in the morning. I'm sure Yukiko will understand. I'll talk to you tomorrow." With a small "beep" Yu hung up the call and tossed his phone onto his desk, placing his hands behind his head as he thought.

And with that, the investigation resumed.

Yu hadn't been awake for longer than five minutes before he swiped up his phone and casually called Rise's number. Hopefully she wouldn't be that busy right now since it was so early. The phone rung for what seemed like hours before Rise finally picked up. Yu instinctively recoiled from the high-pitched "SENPAI!" that came from her end. He scolded himself for not expecting it sooner. "It's been so long since we last spoke! How are you? What's your hometown like? Have you been to see any of the guys in Inaba yet?"

"Rise, calm down. Someone's appeared on the Midnight Channel." That kept her quiet. Rise's usual brand of bubbly cheer had always amused Yu, but she tended to get like this each time they talked. It was an understandable reaction, since she was much busier nowadays and didn't get to see her friends as often as she used to. In any case, her end of the line fell silent as she took in what Yu had said. Her voice had receded into a worried whisper at best.

"And here I was thinking we were done with all this… what are we going to do, Senpai?" Luckily, Yu had been pondering the situation during the night as he slept, and seemed to have come up with an appropriate plan. It could potentially work in theory and would be risky, especially since Rise was the only member of the group who had never actually fought head on. However, this seemed to be the only thing that might work.

"We'll all have to enter our respective TVs. Everyone else is going to enter the TV world at Junes, where Teddie will sniff you out. I can handle myself for a while, so I'll try and catch up as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can use your persona to find the guys if they can't find you. Got it?" It was a long shot, since nobody knew where anything except the Junes TV ended up, but they had to try at least.

"…Okay. I'll trust you Senpai. You'd better come find me quick though! I want to see you all as soon as possible, okay?!"

"Sure. Just make sure you're ready. We'll head into the TV World around 6pm." No sooner had Yu hung up, his cell began buzzing in his hand once again, this time with Yosuke's number showing on the screen.

"Everyone already knew, they were all watching the TV last night!" It was a relieving thought to know that Yu's habit hadn't been spawned out of his own paranoia, and that his friends had his back at times like this. "Still… who was that last night? Who wears thick armour like that anymore? He looked like someone from a play or something…"

"We'll just have to ask him when we find him. We'll be heading into the TV world at 6pm tonight. Make sure you've got everything you need." As Yu concluded his latest phone call, his eyes glanced up towards the clock on his wall, widening as he realised just how late for school he was going to be. He snatched up his bag and uniform before practically kicking the door down and dashing school-ways, thankful that his parents were away for the week and that he could do such things on a whim.

Rise Kujikawa was lonely. The fact that she had some actual friends now was a relieving thought, and it made her showbiz life a lot easier to cope with, but at the same time there were days which made the young idol feel especially isolated, especially lazy days such as this one. She had the next three days to herself and nothing to do in the meantime. Her hotel room was nice, but above all else it was empty, which saddened the young girl. However, this newest opportunity which had been presented to her had come as a breath of fresh air, as well as a jolt of energy and enthusiasm which she had been slowly losing over the past few days. Her first plan was to run up to Yu on sight and give him a hug strong enough to crush his spine, but she remembered that she couldn't exactly do that anymore, since he had become so intimate with Yukiko. Nevertheless, Rise was a strong girl. She told herself over and over that she'd be just fine in spite of her crush being taken away, and so far it was working.

As the clock struck 6pm, Rise felt the butterflies begin to take flight in her chest. This was the first time she had entered the TV world on her own without anybody to back her up. Still, the person within the TV wasn't going to save themselves, she thought to herself. Taking a deep breath and praying that she wouldn't end up too far away from her friends, she leapt into the large LCD screen and left only a fleeting ripple on the surface to show she had ever been there. The familiar feeling of falling into the foggy domain engulfed her entire body, only to be interrupted by her feet meeting the ground of wherever she had landed. Upon opening her eyes, Rise was happy to see that the area she was in was devoid of shadows for now. What made her even happier though was the place she had landed itself. The floor and walls were made entirely of crystal, looking much like a lake which had frozen over in the middle of a storm. The platform she was standing on appeared to be held within a massive crystal cave, with various smaller paths splitting off from the main one upon which she stood.

"That… looks a little slippy…" She lied to herself. To say the platforms looked a little slippy was a gross understatement. The scenery may have been pretty, but it by no means looked safe. "Kouzeon, let's see where everybody else is!" Rise's persona card floated down in front of her face before shattering and allowing her Persona to be summoned. Peering through her visor, Rise could indeed feel a faint presence below where she was standing, deeper down into the cave. Needless to say, she was far from pleased with the situation. "Well… I guess it'll be easier for me to go down than for everyone else to come up…" Summoning as much courage as she could, Rise took a single step out onto one of the descending walkways which spread around the cave. It took a couple of seconds, but eventually she felt comfortable enough to walk on it. She lifted her other foot away from the platform carefully, feeling like the slightest motion would send her tumbling to her doom. Taking tiny baby steps, Rise began making progress, albeit slow at that.

That is, until her footing slipped.

Rise's heart nearly stopped. Her backside hit off the crystalline structure and sent her sliding down the walkway. Her screams echoed around the cave as she slid, stopping mere inches from the end of the second platform she ended up on. The new platform was significantly smaller than the last, with barely enough room to properly stand up. It stood to reason that sliding was the only acceptable way down. Rise braced herself and swung her slender legs around onto the left of the platform, positioning herself in such a way that she felt she could control the speed she slid at. She was of course, wrong. Another squeal leapt from her mouth as she slid down the precarious shards of crystal. Luckily for her, the next platform was significantly larger, albeit far from flat. However, while footing would be less of a problem now, a far graver one had just risen up from the platform. Shadows.

"O-okay, Kouzeon… We've got this, right?" Needless to say the Persona didn't answer back. Likely because she didn't have a face. The shadows on the platform gathered themselves, forming into what looked like crystalline mouths with oversized tongues. The shards of crystal looked particularly deadly, turning the shadow's tongue into something more resembling a flail. Unfortunately, Rise's chances of getting out of the situation unharmed were growing dimmer and dimmer each second. She backed away slightly, tripping on a section of the platform which was suddenly lower than the rest. As much as she didn't like admitting it, she was in deep trouble. A quick glance over the edge of the platform confirmed that jumping wasn't an option. Rise felt like crying as she came to the realisation that she was in no fit state to fight without her friends. As if she could—

"DIE, UNEARTHLY CRETINS!"Someone's voice roared from behind the shadows. Before Rise could confirm what was happening, the thick blade of a sword swept through the shadows, utterly destroying one and knocking the other off the edge of the platform. Glancing forwards, it seemed that the sword belonged to a knight of some kind. A male voice grunted and shouted from underneath a black hood, the gleaming silver armour confirming what his profession was. There was a deafening clashing sound of metal off crystal as the knight's sword embedded itself into the ground where a shadow had once stood. The shadows might as well have never existed in the first place. Rise pulled herself to her feet and dusted herself off instinctively, eager to see who it was that had helped her out. The knight's face was obscured by his hood, and his body, his armour. However, his sword told a different story altogether. He had it slung over one shoulder and was supporting the bottom with his right hand, his left being occupied with a tall shield. It was also hard to say for sure, but it almost looked like the sword was distorting the air around it, almost like it was on fire. The knight became aware of Rise trying to analyse him and walked over, planting his giant sword in the crystal as he went, holding the now-free hand out to the young girl.

"Thanks so much, I thought I was gonna end up dead for sure!"

"Think nothing of it. I did only what any upstanding gentleman would have done, Miss…" The man… no, _boy's _voice sounded… odd, to say the least. Muffled? Distorted? It was hard to tell, but something wasn't right. However, this was hardly the time for more analysing; the fellow had asked his new acquaintance her name, for goodness' sakes!

"Rise Kujikawa. What's your name?"

"I am Knight Astaire, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight." The armour-clad fellow said with a bow. Rise didn't entirely understand what he meant by this, hence why she decided to inquire about the part she DID pick up on.

"You don't have a full name? Just Astaire?"

"No, that IS my name. Just." Ba-dum tish. Rise resisted rolling her eyes, but she couldn't help stifling a giggle, admitting that it was a very well-planned introduction. Astaire rubbed the back of his head in what was presumed to be embarrassment, but it was hard to tell under all the cloth on his head.

"So what are you doing in here? Are you searching for the missing person too?" Rise inquired. She couldn't help but notice that Astaire had come to save her in a place where she shouldn't have been able to be saved, within the TV. He could easily have been the victim of this case, but Rise had never seen or heard of any victims actually being able to fight off shadows on their own. There was just no way it could be someone as strong as this! Astaire crossed his arms after setting his sword upon his back. He cocked his hooded head in thought as he tried to recall anything relating to missing people which he had heard of.

"Well, I originally came down here because these damnable monsters chased me. However, I saw some chests down here and felt obliged to take the contents." Astaire explained. "After which I heard your cries for help and naturally came to assist you." True enough, Rise had noticed several things hanging off the chivalrous knight's waist, including several Magatamas and some peach drops. "But as for missing persons? I can't say I've heard anything to that effect, but I'm pretty sure I would have noticed someone on my way down."

Rise's expression turned to one comprised of equal parts confusion and frustration, partway because she had no idea how Astaire had come to be and partway because she was no closer to finding the missing victim than she had been upon her arrival. From the looks of it, she was going to have another Teddie-esque case on her hands.

"Well then, shall we be off?" Astaire inquired, hoisting his sword over his shoulder again. "If this person you're looking for is in this cavern, chances are that they're even further down than we are. We'd best get a move on!" Rise was a little taken aback by how gung-ho the knight was, especially considering they had only just met.

"Are you sure? I don't want to burden you with having to protect me all the time…"

"Protect you? I'm not asking you to accompany me as a damsel miss, I'm asking you to come as my partner." Astaire pumped his fist in the air, emphasising his point. "Let's show these foul demons what can be accomplished through jolly co-operation!" A smile spread across Rise's face when it occurred to her that she was actually going to be able to help out. The young lady might not have been a fighter, but with someone else by her side, her power came to light in deadly ways. She gave a nod to the knight as he gave a hearty chuckle, pointing towards the next pathway as they began their descent.

"I'm telling you guys, she's above us! I don't know how, but she is!" A flustered Teddie exclaimed. As luck would have it, Yu had dropped into the world not far from where the group at Junes had spawned. The trip there hadn't been all that difficult, considering Yu still had a particularly strong katana from their previous endeavours in the TV world. The group of friends (bar Rise,) had all assembled and met up to search for the missing idol, but they seemed to have hit a bit of a dead end. Teddie's nose twitched and sniffed as he hunted for Rise's scent, but the only place he was being led to was directly above where they currently were.

"While I'm sure the composition of the sky isn't the same as the one in the real world, I too find it hard to believe that Rise-san is up there." Naoto commented idly. She swept off her hat and began fanning her face in the intense heat. The group had all ended up outside of the pyramid they had seen on the TV, but they hesitated going in without Rise by their sides.

"Ooh… I don't want to imagine what Rise-chan must be going through on her own right now…" Teddie managed to say through biting his nails.

"You do think she'll be fine by herself, right?" Yukiko asked an up-till-now silent Yu. Her fingers interlocked with his and gave a tight, worried squeeze.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Rise's stronger than most people think." With superb timing, a quake was felt underfoot as Yu said this. "…But I don't think she's THAT strong…"

"The hell is she doin' up there? Sounds like she's taking on the shadow all by herself with all that damn noise!" Kanji shouted over the din of the quake. Indeed, the question on everyone's minds was roughly equivalent to their fellow comrades. What on earth was Rise getting up to without them?

"Persona!" Kouzeon rose up from behind Rise as Astaire tore through the swathes of shadows slinking towards them. A bright light enveloped him as Rise charged his next attack, which was so strong that the entire other half of the walkway they were on shattered into thin shards of crystal, toppling the rest of the shadows as a result. Both parties were naturally in awe of the other. "That was…"

"Incredible! I had no idea you would be such a competent partner, Ms. Kujikawa!" This appeared to have become a habit of Astaire's within the short period of time she had known him. Rise had reminded the knight that her name was Rise and that he should call her that as a result, yet he continued to refer to her as "Ms. Kujikawa." Not that Rise minded, nor was terribly surprised at this, for Astaire seemed to act like a noble knight right down to the respectful way he spoke. "Never in all my time in Lordran have I had a partner as useful!" Rise's face felt ever so slightly warmer as Astaire spoke, until a certain word caught her attention.

"Lordran? What's Lordran?" Astaire seemed puzzled at the question, freezing up and slowly turning around to answer. "Is that where you came from before now?"

"Ms. Kujikawa… we're still in Lordran. Are you feeling alright?" Well, that about confirmed it. This was clearly not a normal case of people being thrown into the TV world, if such a thing could be considered normal in the first place. However, Rise believed that correcting Astaire wouldn't benefit her right now, instead opting for agreeing with him in order to learn further about this "Lordran."

A soft sigh rippled the cloth around Astaire's hood as he shouldered his sword again, leading the way in case any shadows should come back. The gentle clinking of metal from his armour echoed around the cave as the two walked, only to be overlapped by Astaire himself. "You really don't know about Lordran? I assumed that such a combat-savvy maiden would have at least fought partway through this world..." With no shadows appearing immediately, Astaire let the sword rest in the sheath on his back. "…However, if you truly know nothing of Lordran, it is a land infested with the Undead, one where the flow of time and space is a little queer, with warriors and legends from across the world congregating and phasing in and out of existence."

Listening intently, Rise began to wonder exactly how old Astaire was. He sounded young, but his armour looked like something she'd have seen in a museum, and even then the chance was low of actually seeing a set. The armour itself was constructed from thick metal sheets which fit well together, giving the set a very smooth and lightweight appearance. The greaves in particular caught the eye, with thick metal plates covering Astaire's legs, spiked at each end and curving slightly to provide protection from the front. To say the knight looked formidable would have been a gross understatement. Rise silently thanked that he was on her side.

"But nonetheless, I am still here. I have wandered these lands for what feels like quite some time, but for all I know I could have arrived yesterday, a couple of hours ago or even thousands of years ago! I have always felt like a part of me has gone astray somewhere along the course of my journey, and it is this piece of myself that I now search for."

Wait… could Astaire have been talking about his shadow? Could he have been the missing person after all? Now that Rise thought about it, the reason he may not have seen the missing person might be because he WAS the missing person. She made a mental note to herself to give Yu a slap for not describing the person on the Midnight Channel beforehand.

"Oh, I do apologise Ms. Kujikawa, I did not mean to ramble."

"It's fine, Astaire-kun." Something didn't feel right about calling him that. She didn't think someone from this "Lordran" would exactly grasp the concept of being referred to as "Senpai" however, meaning this was about as good a name as any. "By the way… where did all the shadows go?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"We were running into them every few seconds up until now, but now… it's a lot quieter…" Astaire stopped on the spot, plunging the rest of the cavern into silence. A very unnerved Rise could feel the butterflies from earlier begin to act up again. The atmopshere was almost as heavy as the equipment Astaire was carrying. To say that the tension could be cut with a knife would be an understatement, the situation was more akin to being able to reach out and just grab the tension with your bare hands. The metallic rhythm of Astaire's walking resumed slowly as the two partners acknowledged the strangeness surrounding the situation.

"I don't like this, Astaire-kun…" Rise said through increasingly frequent breaths.

"Nor do I, Ms. Kujikawa." Astaire's pace quickened slightly as he began to walk down a particularly treacherous pathway. "Still, to waste a journey such as ours would prove a greater tragedy than whatever awaits us in these monster's stead." Though his words were somewhat more cryptic than what Rise was used to, she had to agree with him. They had come this far, after all…

The rest of the journey into the depths was filled with a similar brand of silence. Silence filled only with the footsteps and ambient sounds given off by the sole two people willing to break it. By now the crystal caves had gone, leaving only a single pathway as a reminder it had ever existed. The wide walls of the cavern had gone from glistening crystal to foreboding granite in what seemed like no time. All the while, Rise found herself getting closer to Astaire as they descended. While she sat like a frightened puppy, glancing from side to side for any aggressors, Astaire seemed adamant in his resolve to simply move forward, apparently acknowledging the absence of monsters as a sign of something else entirely. Confidence such as his meant that he knew the reason behind the disappearance of their foes.

"Hold on, Astaire-kun? I want to take a quick look at something, if it's alright." Their walk had gone on far too long for Rise's liking, she was beginning to wonder exactly how close to her friends she had come since starting her journey so far above them. Astaire stopped, giving a small bow and holding out his hand as a sign for her to proceed. Kouzeon placed her visor in front of Rise's eyes, scanning the area for signs of life.

"Hey, my friends are close by here, we couldn't be too far away now!" The young girl exclaimed excitedly. Astaire chuckled at her adorable enthusiasm. "Do you think this pathway goes on for much longer, Astaire-kun?"

"Nope. Watch this." Fumbling about inside his armour for a moment, Astaire retrieved what appeared to be a small rock. He tossed the rock behind his back, letting it stumble down the pathway ahead of them. The rock made off-placed sounds when it hit the pathway, rolling down in tiny leaps as it went. However, it got about halfway down when something odd happened. Namely, the rock fell through the path altogether, down into the inky black abyss below.

"What the…?" Rise started, only to be interrupted by something far more foreboding than a false path. A bone-shattering roar rang out from below them, a pair of large blue eyes staring at them beneath their feet. Rise's heart skipped several beats as a large skeletal hand reached out and grasped at the edge of the cavern, its size being roughly that of a very sizable house. Evidently, Astaire had seen this coming, unsheathing his massive sword with both hands. The skeletal being gave out yet another roar, this one sending shards of crystal tumbling down like a rain of tiny daggers.

"Ms. Kujikawa. Charge me, if you please." Astaire didn't need to ask twice. The green light engulfed him once again as Rise placed every possible buff and bonus she had onto the knight. "Now, hold onto my back." This request took a little longer to process. With an embarrassed expression, Rise leapt onto Astaire's back and clasped her hands around his shoulders. "After all, I wouldn't want to leave you behind after all we've been through!"

"Huh? What do you—HEY, HOLD ON A SECOND-!" There was no time to argue by this point. Astaire took a couple of step back, calming the rate of his breathing as he did so. With a sudden surge of momentum, the knight charged forward, leaping off the pathway and into the air above the monster.

Astaire breathed in lightly before he impacted with the being. "Praise the…"

"SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"

A massive fissure seared across the sky, expanding and grasping out towards the outer reaches of the desert as the members of the investigation team struggling to maintain their footing.

"Senpai, what the hell's going on?!" Shouted a very frantic Kanji to Yu. However, not even the brilliant leader of this rag-tag group of friends had an answer. The sand beneath their feet began weaving up and down like the waves of an ocean in a storm, with the likelihood of engulfing its prey having been doubled at the bare minimum. Finally, several pieces of the "sky" began hurtling towards the ground, getting swallowed up by the raging tides of the desert. All at once, the group of teenagers saw the cause of their misfortune. From the sky came a plethora of bones and tar, skulls of varying sizes making up the body of whatever had just fallen through. The masks of shadows decorated the exterior as well, with two bony arms extending upwards as a result of the fall. The biggest mask of them all was situated on the top of the beast, but it was now being shattered into hundreds upon thousands of tiny pieces, the source of which being a tiny speck on the surface of the monster's body, something resembling a man with a massive sword embedding his weapon into the monster's forehead, a strangely-shaped cloak clinging to his neck.

"EVERYBODY RUN!" Yu hollered, not waiting for everyone to catch up, not that he needed to. The amalgamation of bones and masks hit the ground with a sound more fearsome than that of an atomic bomb, sending massive walls of sand hurtling towards the valiant team. However far they managed to run, it seemed like the foreboding hulk of rock and minerals was far too large for anyone to outrun. With this realisation fresh in their minds, the members of the investigation team braced for what was sure to be a painful display…

That is, unless a certain girl with pigtails wasn't intending to remedy the situation. A green flash of light emitting from the location of the swordsman greeted its targets by providing them with an unbreakable shield, one which took its fair share of pain as the tonnes of sand cascaded down upon its wielders.

It didn't take long for the sand to settle down, allowing the group of friends to dig themselves out from underneath the claustrophobic hell which had been haphazardly tossed atop them.

"What the heck is that thing?!" Chie was the first one up.

"Who's that riding on top of it?" Yukiko followed suit.

"I've never seen a shadow that big in my entire life!" Teddie retrieved himself from the sand, stepping outside his suit to empty the sand which had gotten in.

"How did it manage to shatter the sky like that?" Naoto asked to nobody in particular.

"Mmphm, mmpgmh mmm!" Yosuke tried to say, but considering his mouth was full of sand, he didn't seem liable to talk for quite some time.

"Is that the shadow of the guy we're looking for, Senpai?" Kanji inquired through shaking the sand out of his hair and blazer.

"I don't know… but whatever it is…" Yu's head popped up last, but only his head. "It looks like it brought Rise along too."

Everyone's head shot around simultaneously as they saw two figures running towards them in the distance. The one on the right being slender with it's hair done up in pigtails and the one on the left running after her, a massive sword slung across it's shoulder and a thick body shape accompanying the strained run it was doing.

"WOOHOO! WE ROCK!" Rise's voice could be heard shouting. "Nobody can stand the unstoppable duo of Rise and Just!" It took less than a few seconds for Rise and Just to finally meet up with the rest of the group, both of them out of breath and both withholding laughter as best they could, the massive truckload of adrenaline not having anywhere else to go. "Did you guys see that?! Oh man, that was the coolest thing I've ever done EVER!"

"Yeah…" Astaire gasped for breath. Apparently he was too tired to continue the mannerisms he had been using up until now. "I'll admit that this was a little over-the-top, even for me but… GOD DAMN DO WE KICK ASS!"

"YEAH!"Rise and Astaire high-fived in excitement, catching Astaire by surprise when Rise's hand managed to put a crack in his gauntlets. The two continued with their giddy fits of laughter like this for a while, stopping only when they realised that everybody else was dead silent. All eyes were on the duo, particularly on Astaire in his foreboding armour and hood.

This silence remained until someone, Yu, cleared his through and managed to speak up.

"So… feel like introducing us, Rise?" The young girl felt her cheeks go bright red at the question; much like Astaire could under his layers of cloth.

Rise cleared her throat, holding a hand towards Astaire, who put his hands on his hips and struck a heroic-looking pose.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Just Astaire!"

"Doesn't he have a full name?" Interrupted Yosuke. Clearly this was going to be a running thing with Astaire. He cringed on the inside at the thought.

"That's his name, Just! He helped me fight my way down here!"

"Rise-chan fighting? Unheard of!" Teddie proclaimed, obviously drawing a far-from pleasing reaction from Rise herself, as well as Astaire.

"I will have you know, rotund penguin creature, that without Ms. Kujikawa's assistance back there, I'd likely be pushing up daisies." Apparently Astaire had calmed down enough to return to his more knight-like tone. "My Zweihander can only do so much, after all." At the mention of the sword's name, Yu's eyebrow rose inquisitively. He too had gotten a Zweihander from Daidara, but it was nothing like the one being carried by Astaire. For one, Astaire's Zweihander has _far_ bigger, roughly the size of Astaire himself, who was around about half an inch below Kanji's height, if his hood was anything to go by.

"P-p-penguin?!" Teddie fumed, stomping the ground in frustration. "Why can nobody ever tell that I'm a bear?!"

"Because bears aren't blue, don't walk around on two legs and don't wear jumpsuits?" Chie suggested, getting a laugh out of everyone despite Teddie's woes. "Alright guys, let's stay on topic. How did you get up there, Just-san? Any other time we've come in here, the owner of the shadow has been with the shadow itself."

Astaire crossed his arms in thought and gazed up at the hole he and Rise had made in the sky, seeing the complex web of crystal hanging at the top. "Well... I had been exploring, to begin with, in some sort of library if I remember correctly. While exploring I found my way into a large cavern, plastered from tip to toe in crystal." Everybody else looked up, catching a glimpse of the reflective beauty of the cavern as well. "I kept heading down deeper and deeper, never seeing a soul on my way. However, after a while I realised that I could no longer see where I had come in from, neither could I see where I was heading."

"There wasn't any…fog… was there?" Kanji murmured with a worried expression plastered across his face.

"Not fog, no. I had just come down so far that I was unable to see anything above me, too far away and all that. It was only when I heard Ms. Kujikawa scream that I actually realised I had made any progress at all. It was around then that I met these beings you call "Shadows.""

Everybody pondered the story for several minutes. Yu in particular could see that some things didn't add up. Astaire hadn't been thrown into a TV, he hadn't ended up along with his shadow… hell, the whole TV situation itself had been taken care of months ago, the mere fact that he was here in the first place was strange! "In any case, we need to take care of Just-san's shadow. If the Midnight Channel is to be believed, it went in there. Let's get a move on." The grey-haired young man broke the silence and picked up his sword again, walking towards the pyramid at the head of the group.

"Yu-kun, wait for me!" Following behind him was Yukiko, shortly accompanied by Chie.

"Kanji-kun, let's get a move on." Both Naoto and Kanji gave a nod as the group began mobilising. Yosuke began walking off, giving Astaire a sideways glance as he did. The knight shifted in his armour, not sure what to make of the gesture. Teddie of course accompanied him, leaving only Rise and Astaire behind.

"That brown-haired young man worries me. Have I done something wrong?"

"Yosuke-senpai? Bah, don't worry about him; he's a pretty okay guy once you get to know him." Rise assured him, patting him on the shoulder. Astaire stood adamant however, unable to feel her touch under his armour. "I'm sure you'll get along great with everyone!" Somewhere under his hood, Astaire was smiling a broad smile. The young girl bounced forward and began running off towards the foreboding structure before them, her new armoured companion coming up from behind.

The pyramid was deceptively big on the inside, which was impressive considering it looked pretty big to begin with. Everybody had regrouped at the entrance as a cool wind blew from the center of the building. It was a fine opportunity to cool down after the heat from the desert had beat down upon them.

"Well on the bright side, this is definitely the easiest path we've ever taken to get down." Yosuke said. For this to be Astaire's supposed reality was rather worrying. A single path of limestone extended out in front of the group, surrounded on all sides by an inky blackness. The walls of the pyramid couldn't be seen, nor was there any sign of a floor or surface below them. If they fell off, it looked like they were going to have a long time to say goodbye.

The solution was simple, just follow the path. The sound of everyone's footsteps filled the silence, accompanied by the sound of Astaire's armour. It suddenly came to Yu's attention that the sounds they were making weren't reverberating, not even slightly. It was almost as if there were no walls or other surfaces beyond the path at all. So far, it appeared to Yu that a running theme with Astaire's projections of reality was that of emptiness. An empty crystal cavern, the only other source of life being the ones Rise had attracted. A desolate desert, the only inhabitant being the sole structure at the centre, which in itself was yet another reminder of said emptiness, the path seemingly floating amidst the void within.

"Huh…" Teddie mumbled to himself, clearly in thought about something. Yu turned around and consulted him about his worries, walking backwards as he did so. "Sensei, do you feel a little… lighter on your feet?"

"Yeah, actually… I think this path is getting progressively steeper as we go along." The bend in the path was slight enough to go unnoticed by everyone for quite some time, but all the same it was evident that the incline was far from straight, as it had been earlier. The group seemed to huddle closer together as they continued their trek into the endless oblivion, every one of them sensing that something wasn't right.

But then, something began to break the silence. A low rumble, coming from behind the group and getting increasingly louder/closer. "Yu-sama…" Yukiko piped up worriedly, the rumbling getting ever nearer. Once again, she slid her fingers between Yu's as the feeling of dread grew ever more present.

However, something else caught Yu's attention over the rumbling, namely the lack of Astaire's armour clinking together. Slowing down and turning around, Yu could see the armoured fellow looking behind him, then at his feet, then behind himself again before he hoisted his Zweihander onto his back and began sprinting towards the group again.

"IT'S A BOULDER! WE NEED TO TRY AND OUTRUN IT!" Nobody needed to be told twice. The group instantly began dashing away from the rumbling, which was now almost deafening to listen to. Everybody's hearts were pounding, their legs seeming like they were ready to catch fire, the feeling of the boulder gaining on them slowly putting an ever-larger spring into their steps. Not everybody was on the same level of physical fitness, though. Teddie's stubby legs fell out from underneath him as he ground to a halt with his face as the brakes.

"Sensei, help me!" Was the last thing anybody heard from him as the boulder rammed into him from behind, launching the poor bear off into the distance. The path was now far steeper, with the boulder just about scraping the heels of Astaire's boots. The group was now running at a speed where it would be impossible to stop voluntarily, but right now that was far from an option which was deemed helpful.

Naoto yelled over the rumbling. "We can't keep going on like this; the boulder's going to catch up to us eventually! We're going to have to jump!"

"Are you outta your friggin' mind?! We don't even know how far down this goes, we could be killed!" Replied Kanji through breaths.

"Well it's either die by being crushed or possibly die by jumping down there, and I know which option has the slightly better chances!" With that, Naoto grasped the back of Kanji's collar and leapt over the edge of the path. Kanji and she could be heard screaming on the way down.

Needless to say everyone else wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea, but at the same time it was the only idea they had. Astaire decided to follow the duo's example, grasping Rise's arm and jumping off also, cradling her in his arms as he braced for the landing. His eyes closed under the blackness of his hood.

"Oh, to hell with this!" Chie somersaulted dynamically off the path, but not before she dragged Yosuke with her. He was understandably horrified, his face having turned white as a sheet as he felt his body weight shift off the path. Seeing little reason to argue, Yu and Yukiko were the last to go, their hands still interlocked as they took the leap of faith.

Rise and Astaire were the first to land, the weight of Astaire's armour helping them reach the bottom of wherever they had fallen to. The shock of the landing ran up through Astaire's body, getting a yell out of him as it hit. A short squeak came from Rise's mouth upon landing, her shoulders tense and her hands held against her eyes. She opened them slowly, taking her hands away at the same time, fixing upon Astaire's hood. She took notice that despite their faces being pretty close, she was still unable to see inside the cloth.

"Um… Ms. Kujikawa?"

Rise blinked several times as she realised the position they were in. She scrambled out of Astaire's arms and onto the ground, which let off a crunching sound as she landed. "Sorry, sorry! I just…" Just what? Wanted to look underneath Astaire's hood to see what he was so desperate to hide? She couldn't say that, definitely not. At the same time, however, it seemed she didn't need to. The hooded knight gave a loud, distorted sigh.

"Listen, as much as I would like to take this off, I'd rather not. It's embarrassing..." Trying to take his mind away from the content of his headwear, the knight leaned back, noticing the pale bronze light which was shining down upon the two. The abyss had been devoid of torches or any other forms of light, the path seemingly taking on a bioluminescent glow as they walked on it. Now however, the path was gone. The light had seemingly no source, but it still existed. He had experienced this phenomenon a couple of times before, but he still had no explanation for it. "We need to find everyone else. Give me a second, please."

Sitting on in silence, Rise observed the seemingly impossible task of Astaire making his shield vanish. Where to? Hell if she knew. The only thing she knew was that in its place, grasped in Astaire's iron-clad fingers, was a skull, being held up by a few strands of hair which popped up from the top. "What the heck is that thing?!" Rise asked somewhat hysterically. Instead of answering, Astaire opted for demonstrating what the object did. He held it in front of him, causing a soft orange glow to envelop him and Rise, with several blue orbs floating in the air around them.

"This is a skull lantern. It helps show secret pathways and also gives us a little light." Astaire explained. The sound of crunching and a stifled yell came from behind the duo. Offering a hand to Rise, which she accepted, Astaire hoisted the young girl onto her feet and held the lantern in the general direction of the scream. This was easier said than done however; as the heavy armour seemed to be embedding Astaire's legs into whatever it was they were walking on. Taking it upon herself to investigate, Rise leaned in closer to examine the floor.

"A-A-Astaire-kun…?"

"Yes, Ms. Kujikawa?"

"What are we standing on…?" Astaire held the lantern lower, letting out a small gasp as he suddenly realised what the floor was made from. The floor underneath their feet was impossible to see, for in its stead was a mass gathering of corpses, thin with their skin browned and tightly clinging to their bones. A lot of them had armour on, some having robes and strange growths resembling tumours growing from their backs, as well as where their heart was located. With a gulp, Astaire continued his walk, not wanting to contemplate on the bodies for longer than he had to.

"These, Ms Kujikawa, are hollows. They-"

A voice interrupted Astaire's explanation, "Hey, is that you, Rise-chan? We're over here!" It was Kanji, and presumably Naoto as well. Trying not to vomit on what was already a disgusting scene, Rise and Astaire slowly made their way over to the couple who had leapt off first. They heard the sound of their footsteps, a sickening squash of flesh under feet, as they drew nearer. The four eventually met up, the light from Astaire's lantern being the one place they could feel somewhat safe. "This place is frickin' disgusting… where'd these poor bastards come from?" Kanji continued, trying to step between the corpses.

Astaire knelt down, bringing the lantern closer to the face of one of the hollows. "I haven't a clue. I've seen mass graves like these before though, but they had all been drowned in the ruins of New Londo." Naturally, nobody had a clue what "New Londo" was, but they understood the implications of mass drowning. "But these hollows seem to have sword wounds on them. I daresay they even match the wounds my Zweihander causes." Astaire lit up a corpse with a deep gash across its back, which sat beside another with its shoulder split from the rest of the torso.

"Persona!" Yukiko's voice shouted from somewhere off to the right of the group, Astaire instantly ran off in the same direction, everyone else following him like moths to a flame.

Naoto turned to Astaire, her face a shade paler than usual, but nonetheless still collected. "These bodies… do they belong to people you've killed before?" Rise looked ready to defend Astaire, a look of disgust crossing her face, but apparently he wasn't denying anything.

"Whoever killed them doesn't matter. It's not like they'll be dead for long, anyway…" Naoto and Rise's eyes widened at this statement. What did he mean by that? Were these things not actually dead, or was something going to bring them back to life? Either way, Naoto pulled out her revolver just in case the situation should go awry.

Kanji, on the other hand, was more curious than worried. "What are they anyway? You call 'em people, Naoto-san, but they sure as hell don't look like them."

"Hollows were formerly Undead, who themselves were once human. This is the bottommost rung on the ladder of humanity for them. It is the inevitable fate of all Undead to become hollows, at which point they will lose their minds and turn into mindless killing machines." Astaire explained in a very matter-of-factly tone. Almost like he was telling this story for the hundredth time and was bored of it.

Needless to say everybody was now even more uncomfortable than they had been previously. Not only were they walking on the bodies of dead people, but they were also walking on a sea of Undead zombie-like monsters. Lovely.

Their unease made them all the more relieved to finally meet up with the rest of the group, bar Teddie, who seemed to have been tossed off elsewhere. Yu and Yukiko were gathered around an injured Chie and Yosuke, who had apparently had a less-than-pleasant landing.

Yosuke grunted as Yukiko tended to his wounds. "Why the hell did you drag me along?! I could've outrun that boulder, no sweat!"

"Yeah, for about 10 seconds maybe! You should be thankful I pulled you out of that thing's way when I did!" Chie retorted as Yu bandaged her head.

"You broke my freaking arm!"

"And I'll break the other one too if you don't give it a rest!" The atmosphere felt tense as Kanji, Naoto, Rise and Astaire approached, the lattermost person taking it upon himself to give the quarrelling couple a hand. Astaire reached inside his armour and pulled out what seemed to be a glowing orange bottle. He tossed it to Chie, who nearly didn't catch it in time. "What's this thing?"

"An Estus Flask, it'll help you feel better if you drink it." Chie stared at the glowing concoction briefly before taking a swig. No sooner had the first few drops run down her throat, she shot straight up into a sitting position and nearly coughed her guts up. She looked at Astaire with an expression that was borderline murderous, but the feeling in her throat was still subsiding, leaving her a little less focused on punching the knight than she would have liked to have been. "Alrighty then, your turn." He turned to Yosuke, who wasn't looking as enthusiastic about this idea as he had been before.

He tried backing away from Astaire, only for his broken arm to give way, getting a yell from the arm's owner. "Are you nuts?! There's no way in this lifetime or the next that I'm swallowing something that does… THAT!" He accusingly pointed towards Chie, who was just about done coughing up a storm.

"Doesn't matter, still helps." Astaire said quickly as he tossed the Estus Flash towards Yosuke's mouth, the neck landing precisely where it had to. As soon as it hit, Yosuke felt a rancid feeling in his throat, like the liquid was trying to rot his neck from the inside out. The feeling gave way and quickly became a sensation much like heartburn for a split second, before finally Yosuke's guts decided to calm down. It was like he had literally just drunk liquid fire. He coughed and spluttered as the flask left his lips, his arms desperately grasping out into the darkness, looking for—

_Wait, both arms? _

Yosuke's right arm wheeled around to the front of his face, looking brand new and good as could be. To an outsider, it would seem like it had never been broken at all.

"Why you… I'll choke you out of that armour, you… you…" Chie started as she reached for Astaire, only to realise that the leg she had broken was the one she had been standing on this whole time. "Oh… wow. That's amazing!" The change of mood from both Yosuke and Chie left the group feeling somewhat lighter in the chest, considering they had gone from pained to bloodthirsty to flabbergasted in the space of two minutes.

"Well this has been fun, but don't you think we should be looking for Teddie?" Yu asked somewhat impatiently.

"We'll look for him in a bit, but for now we need to make sure everything's okay." Yukiko replied.

"Fine. You there, Just-san, can you hold up that lantern of yours again?" Astaire obliged, casting the light over the party and the blue lights into the air.

"Do these orbs show us the way? That's awfully convenient, don't ya think?" Chie asked.

"Regardless, they're the only things down here which seem to know which way to go, I say we follow them." Yu continued.

"Yu-senpai, as much as I would normally agree with you, this seems far too odd to be trustworthy, in my opinion. These orbs could be leading us into a trap." Naoto said.

"Well there's nowhere else to go down here, save for forward. At least if we find a trap we might find a way out of here as well."

"Oh, oh! This happened in a movie once, where the protagonist was investigating a tomb and the exit was right there, but then they fell down into a pit as they ran for it!" Chie suggested, getting odd glances from everyone else. Her face turned bright red as she turned away.

"All we need to do is avoid the trap then, right?" Yosuke suggested. Kanji's eyes lit up as he found this new challenge had kindled a flame inside him. He pumped his fists excitedly.

"Oh, I'm hyped now! There's no way we can lose to this stupid tomb!" Kanji held his hand out to the group, who began placing theirs on top one by one. Rise and Astaire were the last to do so, the young girl looking up at where Astaire's face was under his hood.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't like the feeling I get from this place… It's like something's waiting for us at the end of those lights, and I'm not sure we can—"

"We can." Yu stopped her, giving her a self-assured nod as a smile crept across her face. "We all can, if we work together." Rise's hand joined the group, leaving the wandering knight as the sole outsider.

Astaire paused momentarily. He wasn't sure why, but as his hand extended towards the group's, something spoke from within him. A quiet, fleeting voice which came and went so quickly he wasn't sure he'd heard anything at all.

_Don't do it." _

_Just, don't do it, they're evil. _

_Why? Won't you listen to me? _

_Not even to your best friend?_

The quick series of whispers flew through his head and left without a trace. Astaire could feel it inside. He'd been in this situation before, but when? Certainly not in Lordran, but where else could it have been?

"Astaire-kun?" Rise's voice cleared Astaire's head as he saw the group looking at him expectantly. Despite the voice's protests, Astaire's armoured hand rested atop Rise's. He felt the warm sensation even through his gauntlets, bring a smile to his shrouded face.

"Alright, now somebody say something inspiring!" Chie announced excitedly.

"PRAISE THE SUN!" Everyone leapt as Astaire bellowed his battle cry, his hand the only one that flew upwards.

Awk. Ward.

Kanji raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What's Praise the Sun mean?" His words seemed to echo everyone else's thoughts. Astaire scratched the back of his head through his hood and gave an uncomfortable laugh. Nevertheless, with another almighty cry of "Praise the Sun!" The group split apart and mobilised, a renewed spring in everyone's step.

Eventually the bodies stopped piling up, leaving the group to walk upon what seemed to be some sort of earthy, moss-covered floor. As they walked, a blue fog seemed to crawl in from the group's peripheral vision, but not like any of the fog they'd seen in any other parts of the TV world. A little further and trees were beginning to sprout up, dead trees, but trees all the same. The walk was taking what felt like an eternity to end, with little sign of changing.

"Still getting a reading, Ms. Kujikawa?" Astaire was leading the group alongside Yu, who kept rubbing at his glasses with a frustrated look screwed on his face.

Scanning the area had proved surprisingly difficult for Rise, especially seeing as this fog wasn't the normal type which the group had dealt with before. "Yeah, but Teddie's in a different place again! I think we're just going around in circles by this point…"

All of a sudden, the fog seemed to instantaneously thicken, the group now unable to see beyond the tips of their noses. A familiar yet unfamiliar voice seemed to resonate from every direction, speaking to everyone while the source remained unseen. "Around in circles? Well doesn't that sound familiar?!" Astaire seemed to tighten instantly, drawing a quick breath as he did. "Yes, that's right. You know who I am, don't you?"

The fog lifted like a thick white curtain, revealing the area to have changed once again. In the place of trees sat what appeared to be ruined stone structures, things like walls and the remains of buildings. The area seemed to slope down onto one central area, where an armour-clad figure sat on his hands and knees, his hooded head hung low.

"Th-that's-!" Yu started, but everyone knew what this was. Apart from Astaire, who stepped forward to examine the knight further.

The knight could be heard sobbing quietly to himself, a far cry from the presumed attitude of the voice that had spoken. "Oh, woe is me! Here I am, plunged into this existential nightmare, with nothing to my name and no way of escape!" He began, tears falling to the ground from his hood. "What a pointless existence mine is! Won't someone help me, please?! Won't anybody save my fragile mind from this torture?!"

Astaire had obviously caught on that this knight was apparently someone pretending to be him, kneeling down to face the lookalike. "Who are you, Sir? What is it that troubles you?"

"Can't you tell? I'm you."

"Excuse me?"

"Poor little me! Doomed to forever walk this land of the foul undead for all eternity, with not a friend in the world that isn't already dead!"

"Now hold on just a—"

"I just want to end it all… I want to end this torture but I can't! Won't someone please kill me for good?!"

"WAIT A BLOODY MOMENT!" Everyone jumped as Astaire roared at his shadow, which he now had by the throat. "You don't sound like me at all! Are you trying to sully the name of Knight Astaire?!"

The knight seemed to spawn two glowing orange orbs underneath the darkness of the hood, which locked with Astaire's eyes underneath his own. "What good is a name or reputation when the only people around to hear it are already dead?" Astaire's shadow began wrapping his fingers around the real Astaire's throat, who seemed to be becoming less and less confident in his endeavours as he went along. "It's not like you couldn't fix everything, right? You've done this so many times already, after all."

"What do you mean…?"

"You have bested the Lord of Sunlight precisely 18 times. 9 times you succeeded him, and 9 more you chose to walk away. What difference did it make? None. You have beaten countless gods time and time again, and despite being one of the most powerful beings in this land, nothing has changed." The Shadow then grasped upward, snatching at the cloth which made up Astaire's hood. "Well… almost nothing."

With a swift tug upwards, Astaire's hood came off. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat, but none more than Rise and Naoto's. On top of Astaire's shoulders stood a head with the skin barely clinging onto the bones underneath, stretched so far that the head seemed on the verge of splitting altogether. Astaire's eyes were sunken and black, his hair dark and matted, his face unhealthy with his mouth lipless and muscular.

Astaire was an Undead.

"You can feel it drawing closer every second, can't you? The curse of the Darksign creeping its way into your system, making you lose your mind a little more each day! I'm shocked you haven't turned on these people yet as is!"

"No… That's not true…"

"You don't care for this world, or any world for that matter, in the slightest. People are nothing to you but enemies and friends destined for an impending death. Your efforts are for naught no matter how you proceed, and above all else you pity your worthless, cyclical existence, does that about sum it up?"

Everyone in the investigation team didn't know what to say, or even think. Astaire had seemed so confident and brave from what they had seen from him thus far, but now he seemed anything but on the inside. Rise almost felt sick knowing that the person they had been travelling with hadn't been a person at all, instead being one of the monsters that Astaire himself had described, a monster that would turn on them all one day. Naoto on the other hand felt sick at herself. She had assumed that Astaire had been cutting down the former humans back in the abyssal area without remorse, when in fact he had been one of them as well. She imagined it must have been hard, seeing what he would eventually become and what had already become of the people they had been before.

"You bastard… You're… You're not…"

Everyone's eyes widened at once as they heard the familiar phrase about to pass Astaire's lips, their mouths and vocal chords began to move, but it seemed that they were too late, they were too late to stop Astaire from saying—

"YOU'RE NOT WORTHY TO BE A WARRIOR OF SUNLIGHT!" Astaire hauled his sword from his back and embedded it into the ground where his shadow had once stood, as it brandished its own Zweihander in response. "Have you no pride, dignity or self-perseverance?! You are like a selfish child who screams if nothing goes his own way!"

"That's about right. Perhaps you know a little more about yourself than I thought."

"Bollocks to that! There's no way that you can be me, and that's final! You're NOT me!"

The shadow chuckled to itself, slowly growing in insanity as it went along. Finally it whipped off its own hood, showing the same undead face as Astaire's, but with the yellow orbs within the black space of its eye sockets. "Not anymore, I'm not…"

Well, that didn't last long. Everyone seemed to facepalm themselves at one time, thinking they were so close to subduing the shadow without a fight. When the seriousness of the situation hit them, however, their focus returned to them as they drew their weapons, with the exception of Teddie, who still seemed to be absent. Yu, Naoto, Kanji and Yukiko began surrounding the shadow, who had begun gathering dark energy in the signature manner, only to stop partway through, looking entirely unchanged. The shadow leaned on its sword, beckoning towards Yu. "Actually, I think this form will do just fine. As if I need to be any stronger than I already am." The shadow's newfound cockiness annoyed Yu, but at the same time he realised that getting him riled up was just what the shadow wanted. He just wished that someone had told Astaire that as well.

"DIE, IMPOSTER!" Astaire surged towards his shadow, his face screwed into one of insatiable fury. The shadow let out a small yawn and reached for the shield on its back, which it swung around and into Astaire's face, the impact being so strong that it actually threw him off the ground altogether, tossing him off the side of a sheer cliff not far from where everybody stood.

"ASTAIRE-KUN!" Rise screamed, but it was too late.

A collective gasp came from everybody present, the realisation hitting them that they had failed to keep someone safe for once, and that very someone had helped them get this far in the first place. Steeling himself for battle, Yu gripped his sword ever tighter, waiting for the shadow to make the first move.

"I am a shadow, the true self. I'll kill all of you however many times I need to!" The right hand of the Shadow began glowing, the air around it seeming to distort much like the air around its Zweihander. With little warning, the Shadow dropped the massive sword as his hand ignited, a neon-bright flame spawning in his hand. The shadow rose this hand before he plummeted it down into the ground, causing massive pillars of flame to engulf the area. Yu leapt out of the way as the pillars left thick mounds of lava at their bases, which turned the whole area into a lake of fire. The flames seemed to instantly spawn a slick layer of sweat on Yu's head, which dripped down into his eyes in turn. He momentarily dropped his guard and lifted an arm away from his hilt, trying to clear his vision.

"Senpai, watch out!" Naoto yelled, causing Yu's arm to almost magnetise back to his sword as he saw the outline of the Shadow mere feet from where he stood, its massive sword preparing to come down and split him in two. Raising his sword just in time, Yu stopped the blade moments before it split his skin, the heat from the blade throwing hot, dry air down his throat, to the point where he was beginning to feel sick. The shadow seemed to acknowledge this as the pressure on Yu's sword intensified, the Zweihander threatening to rend him in half as its wielder's face grinned a toothy grin.

Stepping in all but too late, Kanji approached the shadow from behind and slammed the steel chair he had kept with him into the side of his head, knocking it off it's feet entirely and causing it to drop its weapon. "You ain't winning this that quickly!" Kanji leapt over to where the shadow's Zweihander had chosen to land and gave it a swift kick, knocking it off the cliff which the real Astaire had flown over. "Let's see you keep up that fire magic with my foot up your ass!" With a bellow, Kanji charged towards the now-weaponless shadow, his chair primed behind him for attack. The shadow hadn't enough time to react as Kanji swung his weapon forward with all his might…

…Only to be stopped mid-swing. The shadow lashed out with its shield, sending Kanji's chair back to his side and stunning him as he tried to process what was going on. He soon found out though, as a crippling punch sent him to his knees, shortly before another met his face, flooring him entirely. The shadow smirked, cracking the knuckles inside its armour. "I've faced gods more times than I can count, what makes you think you're anything special?"

The shadow received its answer in the form of a massive fireball which instantaneously exploded where he stood. Sumeo-Okami receded from behind Yukiko as she gave a satisfied smirk. However, this was shortly wiped off her face as another fireball was launched her way from within the flames, dissipating around her due to her fire resistance. "An immunity to flames, hm? I suppose that would be a strange thing in Lordran, of all places." The shadow let the flames fade in his hand before turning to Naoto, nodding to notify her that it was her turn. The young detective saw his attempt to rile her up and denied him the pleasure, but at the same time her concern for Kanji was slowly beginning to overpower her strong sense of logic. She rose her pistol and steadied her aim.

A coarse thumb ran over the revolver's hammer, the clicking drawing a genuine look of curiosity and surprise from the shadow. "Your methods are medieval at best, but this gun isn't." She said softly.

"And this spell always reaches its target." The shadow swept its hand up as a thick purple cloud engulfed the area. "You won't."

"That's what you think, mister!" Nobody, not even the shadow, saw what happened as this voice called out to it. The sounds of a struggle followed, mostly coming from the shadow itself within the toxic cloud. Yu, who had been overcoming his queasiness up until now, looked up as the toxic cloud began to slowly thin out. It was impossible to make out who the shadow's assailant was, but that only made making out the shadow easier. Yu focused on the shadow which WASN'T short and fast as he felt his arcana card emerge from the air above him. "Izanagi-no-Okami!" The golden figure emerged from the air behind Yu, it's very presence weighting the atmosphere. It struck as pose as a massive gale of wind swept up the toxic cloud, striking at the shadow simultaneously. "Sensei! Watch where you point that thing!"

Yu's eyes widened as Teddie's voice shouted through the gale, the settling dust revealing him to still be locking arms with the shadow. One was pressing against the other, trying to get the other to move and failing each time. Seeing his moment to strike, Yu swept up behind the shadow just as its glowing eyes met his. Feeling as though his body was moving on its own, Yu plunged his sword into the back of the shadow, sending it to the ground as he forced it out again. Blood soaked his blade and much of the ground as the supposed god-slayer lay flat on its back.

The shadow started to get up with remarkable tenacity, only for Kanji to pound it down to the ground again, having pulled himself up from his previous beating. For a moment everybody wondered if they'd have to force him to stop, but the thuggish fellow did eventually calm down. His chair was bent out of shape and reduced to little less than a few shards of metal connected to the base by the time he was done. It actually seemed all too easy in the end, but the shadow was subdued.

"…"

"Well? Ain'tcha gonna say something?" Kanji mocked.

"That… thing…" the shadow turned towards Teddie, who had returned to Chie and Yosuke's sides following Kanji's beatdown. "What in Gwyn's name… is it?"

"I'm Teddie!"

"I see…" The shadow set its head down on the ground, looking about ready to pass out. "You all never introduced yourselves, you know. Ms. Kujikawa not included." Everybody prepared to object, but they realised he was right. Had it really been all that surprising to learn that Astaire had felt lonely, in that case? He had apparently been alone in this world of the undead for who knows how long, not to mention he had been ignored by the majority of the group, who had all been too focused on the shadow to show concern for its owner. It was a touching moment, a rare one where a shadow actually spoke some sense.

"GOT YOU NOW, MOTHERFUCKER!" There was a deafening explosion of sound as a massive blade pierced the chest of the shadow, causing it to slowly begin dissolving piece by piece. The ground shook and several of the stone structures actually toppled to the ground with the impact, which had been caused by none other than the good Knight Astaire himself. He stood with a satisfied, albeit slightly detached grin plastered on his face. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat as the shadow faded away to nothing but a pile of bones, a small flame flickering where the blade had pierced. "There's no way the real Knight Astaire would have been so careless! I knew you were an impostor!"

A pregnant silence followed, in which everyone's eyes turned slowly towards Astaire, who still had one hand on his hilt. As the euphoric rush of adrenaline and victorious pride seeped away, the red-skinned knight began taking notice of this as well. He glanced between Yu, Rise, Teddie and then back to Rise again, biting down on his bottom lip.

"Was I… not supposed to do that?"


	2. Welcome to the Velvet Room

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

These were the first words Astaire heard as he began to come back to his senses again. He wasn't quite sure what had happened to relieve him of them in the first place, but that wasn't his biggest concern. His eyes opened slowly, meeting the roof of the place he now sat in. It was a low roof, and for a panicked moment, Astaire briefly considered that he had been slid into a coffin at some point. Thankfully, this was not the case. As Astaire righted himself in the seat he found himself in, he met the eyes of a very curious looking man on the other side of this "Velvet Room."

The man's face barely moved as he spoke. "Hmm… most interesting. Most interesting indeed." He said slowly. His eyes seemed almost maniacal, but his voice was soothing and was brimming with an impression of deep wisdom held within each word. He peered over his comically long nose, sizing up Astaire as he sat before him. The aforementioned knight gawked around the enclosed area, seeing a foggy environment passing by them outside several of the small windows embedded in the sides. A distinct rumbling sound could be heard underneath this area, but Astaire couldn't quite place what it was. He had never seen anything like this before.

Speaking of things he wasn't seeing, Astaire recalled that this wasn't the place where he had lost consciousness. "Where… am I? This certainly doesn't look like Firelink Shrine…" As he pushed himself slightly off the chair to examine his surroundings further, Astaire noted that he felt much lighter and less bulky than he had in ages. It only occurred to him then, but upon looking at himself, he saw that his armour had gone. In its place, he wore a long blue trench coat with thick golden buttons running up the front. "…and where are my things?!" He said loudly.

The man simply smiled his wide smile as he answered. "First things first. My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

"Ah…" Astaire berated himself for forgetting his manners despite his situation, it was unbecoming of a knight. "I am Knight Astaire, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight." He replied.

Igor seemed satisfied with his response. "Very good. As for where you are, this place exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. It exists, but to some it has never existed at all. Only those who have entered a contract can come here." Upon saying this, Igor pointed a finger in Astaire's direction. "…Except you, it would appear."

Before Astaire could begin to demand an explanation, Igor gave him one. "It is not very often that we receive uninvited guests in the Velvet Room. Truth be told, the parameters that allowed for our meeting here have… intrigued me."

"You and me both." Astaire added. "This doesn't feel like the sort of place where someone could simply waltz in uninvited. Do you have any idea how I got here?"

"An idea, yes. But it is little more than that, a theory." Said Igor. "In the time you have sat in this room, I have looked extensively at the events leading up to your arrival. If my understanding is sound, I think we might get to the bottom of this." Finally moving something other than his finger, the mysterious fellow waved his hand, producing a small television atop the table in front of him. Oddly, Astaire felt a sort of familiarity with the device, despite one having never been in Lordran.

The screen flashed on, showing the crystal cavern which Astaire had met Rise in. "Let us start at the beginning. I believe you said it best yourself," Igor began, before the TV took over.

"...the flow of time and space is a little queer, with warriors and legends from across the world congregating and phasing in and out of existence…" Astaire's voice said from within the box. Needless to say the voice's owner was curious as to how exactly Igor had procured footage of him saying this, but he was more interested in exactly where he was going with it all.

"It is my belief that this unsteady flow of time and space in your dimension caused it to… collide with the one you ended up in. However, the world has done so many times before. You did not even notice the change."

"…Hm. So in other words, Lordran's abnormal nature caused me to walk into another dimension entirely? How very odd." Astaire thought to himself as he let Igor continue.

The screen changed, showing the outside of the desert-like area where Astaire and Rise had met everyone else. "At this moment, the worlds became intertwined. The other world sensed your presence and applied its rules to create the areas you trekked through during your stay. Picture it like your world keeping you on a leash, and the other refusing to let go of you."

Astaire could feel a headache quickly begin to form behind his eyes with all this explaining.

"This is likely the cause of your appearance, as well as the prolonged nature of your stay." The screen flashed once again, showing the inside of the pyramid, as well as other architecture Astaire recognised. The boulders and stone walkways from Sen's Fortress. The mounds of bodies from New Londo and finally, Firelink Shrine.

"This is where things become… complex." Igor lamented, although not as much as Astaire, who was under the impression that things had been quite complex enough for his liking thus far. "It was during this time that you met your shadow. You denied it, causing it to turn on your comrades. Shortly afterwards, after the shadow was weakened, you made a very unconventional decision."

Somehow, Astaire could tell where this was going.

"Instead of accepting your shadow as a part of yourself, you outright destroyed it. Abolished it. Obliterated it beyond any recognition, and this is where our current predicament lies."

"Wait a minute." The young knight interrupted, earning a curious look from Igor. "Are you telling me… that wasn't an impostor? It was actually me?" Igor nodded in confirmation. "Oh, curses. This is all my fault…"

"Do not despair, child. There may be a better outcome to this than you know." Admittedly, this made Astaire curious. Raising his head, he listened on as Igor continued. "Anyway. Your destroying of your shadow did two things. The first was that it destroyed the world created in your mind, where you stood. At that moment, all was wiped from the world, presumably because of the damage caused in your mind due to the mental assault you dealt on yourself."

He could have been taking this the wrong way, but Astaire could have sworn that Igor was trying to say he had given himself brain damage. "The second thing this attack did was sever your link to this world. Due to this, for a fleeting moment, the two worlds had their connection broken. You could not return to your world, because it really no longer existed. Likewise, you could not stay rooted in the other world, as it too had been destroyed completely. This left only one place for you to go…"

"A place between dream, reality, mind and matter…" Echoing Igor's words, Astaire finally came to understand. For a moment, all was lost to him on the physical plane, leaving him stranded in the next best thing.

With an air of finality, Igor swept his hand over the TV, replacing it with a single card, a heart in the middle of it, with claws scratching at it from the side. "Your arcana would have been that of Lust. However…" The card shattered as Igor touched it, splitting into microscopic pieces. "…you have not accepted yourself, and as such do not hold the right to wield such power. My condolences."

Waving his hand dismissively, Astaire tried to put on a smile. "It's fine, really. My time in Lordran has given my plenty of power, I shall require no other to perform my duty." As the thought of performing his knightly deeds came to mind, Astaire couldn't help but wonder how exactly he would perform his tasks inside this strange room he was in. He voiced his concerns to Igor, who summoned another TV, a bigger one this time, in front of him.

"While you cannot return to Lordran, you can return to another dimension all the same. The world of humans awaits beyond this gate, if you wish to enter." Well, that was all Astaire needed to hear. Not that Igor was bad company or anything, but at the same time he felt that living amongst other people who wouldn't try to kill him sounded like a nice offer. He reached out his gloved hand to the TV, before stopping to look at Igor once again.

"By the way, who gave me these clothes? I feel a little exposed knowing someone has changed me."

"That would be Margaret, my assistant. She is absent at the moment, having left to perform other duties before you awoke."

Astaire felt he had to ask. "So, this Margaret… is she pretty, by any chance?" Or rather, was Astaire undressed by someone who didn't look like the bad side of a rat's ass?

Igor merely chuckled to himself, his smile seeming to grow wider at the question. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, young man. I don't think it's my place to say." Sly devil. Astaire chuckled alongside him, before taking a deep breath and touching the television screen. A strange sensation overcame him and before he knew it, Astaire had been pulled into the device entirely, some invisible force having grabbed him and taken him by surprise. He fell through the gateway between the worlds, seeing no end in sight while his original entrance fell away from above him.

The TV disappeared as Igor tapped the top of the device. His hand resumed its original position under his nose, followed shortly by his eyes closing as they resumed their default position.

"Interesting indeed. It is not often one's first visit to the Velvet Room is also their last." He thought.


	3. The Land of the Living

Travelling through the TV felt very unusual to Astaire. Not because he hadn't made use of teleportation before, but it had always seemed a lot more painful back in Lordran. The Lordvessel he had retrieved had been a valuable asset when he discovered that he could use it for this purpose, but to be honest, every time he did choose to use it, he wondered if it wasn't better to simply walk and fight to his destination. Everything in Lordran was connected to the First Flame somehow, and it seemed the Lordvessel was no exception, considering every time he used it made him feel like every fibre of his being was being singed beyond repair before being reconstructed all the same. The only other time it had felt any different was when he had found himself being dragged to Oolacile, and the less said about that little voyage, the better.

This was very different. Astaire actually felt rather at ease falling through the portal, feeling like he was falling down endlessly, but unlike times before when he had lost his footing and ended up doing the same, he felt nearly weightless. Strange shapes rushed past him as he fell, rounded rectangles ensuring he kept on course to wherever he was going.

It was then that something occurred to Astaire. "Come to think of it, where am I going?" While Igor had mentioned briefly that the TV would send him to the world of humans, he didn't actually mention where. The thought threatened to cause Astaire to lose his composure, but he was reassured by the fact that he had awoken in stranger places and come out unscathed.

…Which brought something else to mind. "Hmm… It's said that the Furtive Pygmy found the Dark Soul and spread undeath to Lordran through the division of it." He said to himself, crossing his arms. "Judging from the lack of knowledge on everyone's parts regarding hollows, it's fair to assume this hasn't happened to this other world." Which then led to a more sobering conclusion. "...Without the curse of undeath upon the land and the bonfires to support it… can I really exist at all? Will I die as soon as I set foot there?" Oh dear.

From the looks of it, Astaire was about to get his answer. As he kept falling, a fierce light appeared between the rectangles which Astaire had been passing by, likely signalling that his journey had about reached its end. Taking a deep breath and bracing for the possibility of an instantaneous death, the knight raised his arms and shielded his eyes from the light.

* * *

With the grace and subtlety befitting that of a cinder block flying through a window, Astaire made his landing head-first into the human world. His neck flew forward as something hard met the top of his head and his back met the floor. There was a loud crash as the impact was made, and Astaire could have sworn that he heard several objects topple to the floor as well. The large object which Astaire had slammed into, a bed, served as his support as he hauled himself to his feet, revelling in the fact that he was still alive, or at least as alive as an undead could be. Rubbing the back of his head, the young knight gazed around the room he had ended up in. It was a lot more luxurious than the majority of Lordran, Anor Londo excluded. There was the soft, fluffy looking bed in the centre of the room, coated in a thick cream-coloured duvet, a colour which matched the walls of the room. These walls held several objects on their surface, a simple picture above the bed, some small plastic objects on the walls, (which Astaire failed to recognise as light switches) and most importantly—

"AAAAAAAGH!" A mirror. Astaire looked at himself, not recognising the face which stared back. How could he? He hadn't seen his human face for an immeasurable amount of time. He pinched his own cheeks in amazement, not used to having them be so fleshed-out and peach-coloured. A pair of blazing orange eyes scanned over these details, matching the shade of the fires which Astaire had made such frequent use of. He ran his fingers through his charred black hair, which looked flawless despite everything Astaire had been through. Almost too perfect, if he was honest. But the biggest change came when Astaire drew in closer to the mirror, examining himself very, very closely.

"…It's gone. The darksign is gone." He muttered to himself. Indeed, the sign that he was undead, a ring of fire with a pitch black centre, had been removed from his person.

Astaire recalled in the past that he had seen the flicker of the ring in the pupil of his left eye, watching it burn and remind him of his eventual fate as a hollow. However, that all seemed to have changed in this moment. This was an event which had never taken place before, an Undead fully regaining their status as a normal, everyday human. "…This is impossible…" However, this did nothing to quell Astaire's concerns. He might not have been undead anymore, but what stumped him was exactly why he wasn't. He sat down on the bed behind him and rested his head on his hands, contemplating the situation.

"Ah…!" A voice caught Astaire's attention from behind him as he sat down. He craned his neck around, only to meet the face of the one person he couldn't have been happier to see.

Rise.

Unfortunately, she didn't seem to reciprocate. "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING IN HERE?!" Before he could begin to explain his situation or try to calm her down, Rise was already assaulting Astaire with whatever she could lay her hands on. A clock went flying, alongside several pieces of cutlery and silverware. "STALKER! PERVERT!" She screamed loudly, hurting Astaire's ears with the sheer loudness of her voice.

Instinctively, Astaire reached into his coat to pull out his shield, only to remember that his new attire didn't—

Wait a minute, it worked?

Indeed it did. Seemingly from nowhere, Astaire pulled out his shield from his new coat and defended himself against the barrage of miscellaneous items. At last, he finally had time to ask questions of his own. "Ms. Kujikawa, what in Gwyn's name has gotten into you?!" He shouted back, taking notice that the frequency of the tossed items was beginning to thin out, as evidenced by the lack of thumping sounds on the other side of his shield. He dared to peek around to glimpse at Rise's condition, finding himself lucky enough to not be on the receiving end of any further punishment. Her eyes looked at him without familiarity, as though looking at a stranger. Despite this, Astaire could see that something inside her had clicked, and was causing her to waver.

"Gwyn's name… and that shield…" The fight with Astaire's shadow hadn't been one easily forgotten by Rise. She recalled quite well that Astaire had been tossed over the edge of the cliff they had sat on, with that shield being the tool that his shadow had used to perform the deed. Neither did she forget the shadow's parting words, in which he brought up the name which Astaire seemed to cling to so fondly, Gwyn.

The fact that this complete stranger had also been able to materialise a whole shield from nowhere was also pretty convincing, she had to admit.

The bottle of water which Rise had prepared to throw next fell to the floor as she realised who this intruder in her hotel room was. "…Astaire-kun?" There was no doubt about it. This was the undead knight who she had fought with only 24 hours before. Realising the risk of blunt force trauma being inflicted had been lowered significantly, Astaire put away his sheild and performed a low bow.

"At your service, Ms. Kujikawa." He said with a smile.

Rise approached the young man slowly, taking in every detail of his face equally as carefully. She stared into his literally fiery eyes, examining his hair's newfound sheen and looking over his smooth, peachy skin. He was certainly a far cry from the monstrous-looking thing he had appeared as initially. "Are you still one of those… undead things?" she asked cautiously.

It seemed like something to be happy about, but Astaire wasn't too sure. He didn't crack a smile as he answered, in any case. "Not anymore, it would appear. I'm not too sure why, but it appears as though my undead status had been lifted." Unbeknownst to Astaire, Rise could read him very well, and could see that he was troubled.

"So you're not going to… y'know… go crazy and become a killing machine…?" Astaire shook his head in response. "Thank goodness... You might wanna tell your face that, though." She added with a tap on the knight's chin, which did indeed get a smile out of him. The weight of the atmosphere seemed to lift as the two laughed lightly at each other, before they began to address the elephant in the room. "So… how did you get in here?"

Looking at the TV, Astaire noticed that it was a very different make from the one Igor had provided. It was much wider, yet thinner. He was curious as to how he had managed to fall out of it in the first place, considering it looked like he would get stuck if he tried to go through it now. "I came in through this thing, apparently." He said. "I woke up in a strange blue room, talked to an old man with an incredibly long nose, and then walked into a device much like this one. I was told it would take me to the human world." As he talked, Astaire strafed around the TV, raising his eyebrows at how thin it was.

"An old man in a blue room..." Echoed Rise as she racked her brain for some sort of clue regarding what Astaire was talking about.

"That's right. There was meant to be a woman there as well, someone by the name of Margaret, but she was away at the time... something about other business to attend to."

"...Did you say Margaret?"

The name rung a bell in Rise's head. Margaret, the girl dressed in blue who everyone had only ever met twice. Well, almost everyone. Upon hearing this, Rise swiped up her cell phone and quickly tapped in Yu's number. She held the device to her ear, waiting for it to start ringing. "I don't know what's going on here, but Senpai might." As the line connected, Rise held her phone to Astaire, who vacantly stared at it for a couple of seconds before finally taking it. He raised an eyebrow before Rise finally got what was going on. "Just... put it up to your ear." She sighed. How could he not know what to do with a cell phone of all things?

Nevertheless, Astaire did as instructed and held the phone to his ear.

"...Hello?" Came a voice from the other end. It sounded familiar.

"Oh, it's you. You were the fellow with the grey hair I met earlier, right?" Astaire asked, contemplating how exactly the device in his hand actually worked.

"Oh, yes. My name is Yu Narukami. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier." Yu replied, keeping in mind the shadow's dying words about introductions.

"It's quite alright, I was bound to find out eventually. Once again, I am Knight Astaire. It's a pleasure to speak with you again."

"Thanks but... Why are you calling from Rise's phone? And furthermore what are you doing in the real world to begin with?"

Astaire moved off the bed and pulled up a chair, resting an elbow on the small table in front of it. "Actually, I was calling to ask you about that at Ms. Kujikawa's behest. She was under the impression you might know something regarding a Miss... Margaret, is it?"

Yu was somewhat taken aback upon hearing Margaret's name mentioned by someone who couldn't use a persona. Why, even his friends who COULD use a persona didn't know about her for a very long time. The whole situation seemed odd, especially considering what had happened before the group and Astaire got separated. "Margaret? Yeah, I know her. But how do you?"

"Well, you see..."

Astaire recounted his meeting with Igor as best he could, trying not to leave anything out lest it end up being a vital clue to the situation. Both Yu and Rise were hung on every word, seeing as one didn't know about what went on in the Velvet Room and the other did all too well. While he couldn't see what Yu was doing on the other side of the phone, Astaire did occasionally glance over to Rise, watching her face change with every new development. She looked surprised right now, then concerned the next moment. At least she was listening at all, Astaire thought.

"...And that's all. I somehow stepped from my world into yours, if Igor is to be believed." He finished at last.

"I think he is, but frankly I'm surprised he was as straightforward with you as he was. He seems to have a thing for cryptic messages when talking to me."

Astaire scratched his head and swept away some of his hair which had fallen in front of his eyes. This was going to take some getting used to. "Considering I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place, I doubt there was any chance of me getting back. I guess he must have thought the same."

"Maybe so. In any case, this is a little much to take in all at once. We'll need to discuss this later."

"Later it is, then. I look forward to meeting you under better circumstances, Mr. Narukami. Farewell for now." Astaire clicked the small red button underneath the cell phone's screen, cutting off the call. Funny, considering he hadn't seen or used one before now. Handing the phone to Rise, the young man let out a sigh. He had been through alot of abuse in the past few hours, more so than usual. He found it strange that the one thing able to fatigue him this badly out of anything had been himself.

Sensing his concern, Rise pulled up a chair and sat next to him. "So you're from another world, huh...?" She asked. A nod from her companion confirmed this. "...I guess that'd explain why you can do so many amazing things..." She added, examining the shield which Astaire had pulled out. "Where do you keep this thing anyway?"

In response, Astaire fumbled around in his trench coat for a couple of seconds, until he seemed to find what he had been looking for. What he produced was a thin wooden box, small enough to carry around but big enough to store... something in. "Hopefully this will have what I'm looking for inside..." He said before he opened the lid. Rise felt her jaw drop as Astaire reached inside and, with a gleeful look on his face, pulled out the massive sword he had been swinging about earlier. It was just about his height, and yet he had clearly pulled it out from the small wooden box. She glanced inside it to see what else the item contained, but to her surprise she couldn't see anything at all. There was a deep black hole on the inside and that was about it.

Scanning his eyes carefully over the surface of the massive blade, Astaire made sure it was indeed the right sword for him as he explained. "This device is called a Bottomless Box. It's handy for carrying about all the things I picked up in Lordran." He reached in again, this time pulling out the hood he had lost when his shadow tore it off his face. Noticing this, Rise began to take note of the dimensions of the box. Surely he couldn't-

He did. Some way or another, Astaire had pulled out an entire suit of armour from the box. He gave a satisfied smirk as he put everything back into the box, laughing as he saw Rise's mouth agape. "Don't be so surprised. You and your friends have powers beyond mortal comprehension as well, I think it's only fair I have my share too!" He beamed. One thing was for sure, Astaire was in a much better mood than he had been earlier. There was only one issue which remained for now, that being what in the world Rise and Astaire were going to do now.

"Well..." Rise started, lying down on her bed. "I've got two more days free before I go back to my regular routine... what do you wanna do until then?"

"Well, I have no idea where I am, no idea what there is to do in this area, and I've been living off estus and moss for who knows how long. Would you be so kind as to show me around, Ms. Kujikawa?" Astaire asked as he tucked the bottomless box into his coat again before sealing it up.

"Sure, Follow me!"

* * *

Stepping outside, Astaire froze up instantly. He had never seen so many people in one place all at once. Before he knew it, his hand flew inside his coat before it latched onto the hilt of his sword. "W-wait a minute!" Rise said hastily as she pushed the end of the Zweihander back into his coat. "What the heck are you doing?!"

"There are people everywhere. There could be enemies hiding in the shadows for all we know!" The pupils in Astaire's eyes seemed to turn into pinpoints as sweat began rolling down his face. His eyes darted from right to left, looking for anyone who might have been brandishing a weapon or trying to hide in the environment, in a way he had done many times before. Between people he knew turning undead and spirits which merely looked like people trying to attack him, Astaire had done this many times. He had never seen so many potential assailants in his life.

With her hands on her hips, Rise gave a sigh. "I think you've been playing knight for too long. Not everyone around here wants to try and kill you, got that?" Underneath his coat, Astaire's shoulders shrank down and loosened up a bit, but he still looked very much on edge. Rolling her eyes, Rise grabbed Astaire's wrist from inside his coat and dragged him onto the street behind her. His steps were heavy and lacked rhythm, he clearly had his mind elsewhere. It seemed that Rise was going to have to try a different approach with this. Not stopping to interrupt the thick tide of people walking with them, she looked Astaire in the eye. "People around here aren't used to seeing knights with huge swords walking around! If you don't behave, you're going to get us both in trouble..." She said as quietly as she could manage.

This seemed to strike a chord with Astaire, who took a deep breath and sighed. With a few more suspicious glances for good measure, he loosened up and relieved his wrist from Rise's grip. The young girl smiled to herself for being able to calm him down, and walked on freshly reassured that they could retain a low profile.

...That is, until Astaire began walking up straight. His worry had caused him to arch his back in preparation for lifting his Zweihander, but now that he was calm, he stood to his full height, a good few inches above anyone else around him. He stuck out like a sore thumb, to say the least. Rise groaned as she hurried Astaire along to their destination.

A diet of moss and... estus, whatever that was, didn't sound too appetizing to Rise. Therefore, there was only one place that would do for a job such as this. "Hagakure..." Astaire read the name of the restaurant they stood in front of shortly before being dragged in behind Rise. Instantly, a concoction of unfamiliar delicious smells wafted into Astaire's face, making him feel hungrier than ever before. He was lucky that Rise had accompanied him, seeing as she had to practically drag him to his seat, a part of the establishment which was reasonably closed off and hard to see from outside.

"Miso ramen and one Hagakure bowl, please." The chef behind the counter gave a nod as he went about preparing the dishes while Rise sat back down with Astaire, who seemed rather distant as he sat there. She clicked her fingers to get his attention, making him jump rather abruptly back into reality, making a rather loud "thump" off the table. "So, Astaire-kun..." Began Rise, "...Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

"About myself? Why?" Asked a puzzled Astaire. Nobody had ever asked him this question before, and he was at somewhat of a loss as to why they would in the first place. Humans were interesting creatures, it seemed.

"Well... I don't really know that much about you, other than what your shadow said, and even then he didn't make much sense..."

"I-I see. Very well." Astaire cleared his throat before speaking. "Lets see... well I suppose the Undead Asylum is as good a place to start as any. I was trapped there, you see. Such was the fate of many undead at the time who lacked humanity, we were all tossed into the Asylum and left to rot inside and out, basically." It sounded gruesome to Rise, but Astaire explained the event without so much as batting an eyelid. For a moment she considered this might have been because he didn't have eyelids earlier. "Until one day, that is. A fellow by the name of Oscar came to my rescue, and handed me the key to my cell. From there on..."

It was very hard not to be amazed by Astaire's exploits. Lordran was no shadow world, that much was abundantly clear. The difference was actually staggering when Rise thought about it. Yu had once told her about the first time he fought a shadow, large disembodied mouths that he had taken out easily on his own. Astaire's encounters sounded... ridiculous, to put it one way. Fighting past a gatekeeper demon to get out of the asylum, fighting a hulking bull demon and a massive drake not long after, shortly followed by a heavily armoured boar, armies' worth of undead soldiers that refused to stay dead once killed, and finally two animated gargoyles on top of the roof of a parish. And this was his first task.

Damn.

"...and it was only after all that trouble that I got to the first Bell of Awakening. If I had known what I would have to go through to get to the next one, I would have likely killed myself then and there. If I was able to stay dead, that is."

"Was it that bad...?"

"It made the parish look like a cakewalk." Astaire said somewhat boastfully. All throughout the story, Rise kept finding that she had to remind herself every so often that Astaire was in fact, still alive and had therefore overcome all the things he had faced. The odds sounded insurmountable in Lordran, but somehow one lone undead warrior had overcome them. She was partway stunned and partway in disbelief. It almost sounded too good to be true. Then again, she had seen for herself Astaire's well-honed power within the TV world, when they conquered the massive skeletal shadow in a single hit.

Astaire's tales of adventure and danger only came to an end when two bowls were sat upon the table by the owner of Hakagure. "Oh, thank you!" Rise remembered to say after listening to Astaire for so long. The fellow who came to serve them seemed to give Astaire a funny look as he left, slightly putting the warrior on edge. If he hadn't had such delicious looking food in front of him, he might've actually been worried. "Oh wait, do you know how to use chopsticks? You have to-"

Before she could even attempt to fashion an explanation, Astaire's hand flew from his bowl to his mouth with lightning speed, the chopsticks held deftly between his fingers. As soon as the first bit of meat hit his tongue, Astaire seemed to fly into an insatiable frenzy. It was often noted that Chie was by far the biggest meat lover in the investigation team, and that to challenge her to a meat-eating contest was practically suicide. For a fleeting moment, Rise considered that Astaire might have a chance at beating her. When he said he had been living off moss and estus, he most certainly hadn't been joking. The meat was gone as quickly as it had arrived, with a dazed Astaire finally stopping to take a breath after devouring the entire meal. Rise had barely snapped her chopsticks in half, never mind started her ramen, and it took both parties a good few seconds to realise what they had just witnessed.

There wasn't even a single speck of food left on the bowl. It might as well have been thoroughly cleaned and then handed to Astaire. The ravenous knight was the first to make a move, hastily grabbing a napkin and cleaning his mouth, his face as red as a beetroot. "S-sorry..." He mumbled, "I just haven't eaten real food since..."

Come to think of it, had there EVER been a time when Astaire had eaten real food? As much as he thought about it, he couldn't seem to recall. He almost seemed physically hurt as he tried to remember, the creases on his forehead multiplying more and more as time went on and the headache he had gained from it getting increasingly painful. "S-s-since... since..." He stuttered as he clutched his head in pain. She held her hand out to stop him, but Rise quickly pulled it back as she noticed a shimmer of light begin to surround Astaire's hands. His face turned a bright red, sweat began pouring down his cheeks, his eyes were manic and unfocused, and a thin layer of steam seemed to be rising from both his hands as they seemed to scorch the side of Astaire's head.

Finally, it was too much. Astaire slammed a fist into the table as he finally reached his limit. "I can't remember... why can't I bloody remember...?" He asked himself. The sound of burning wood wafted into a very timid Rise's nose as she finally took her attention away from Astaire. His hands were acting like they were practically on fire, black marks spreading out around the fist on the table. "I remember back until the Undead Asylum... but what about the time before that? I just don't know..."

"U-um... Astaire-kun?"

"Yes...?" The estranged young man finally seemed to come to his senses as he noticed the increasingly large amounts of smoke rising from the table thanks to his hands. "Uh oh." He quickly retracted his hands and tried patting them down on his coat to quell the heat. Unfortunately, the attention gained from nearly putting a fist-shaped hole in the table was nothing short of worrying. Several pairs of eyes were becoming increasingly interested in what was going on between the rising idol and the stranger sitting opposite her. It wasn't often such behaviour went unnoticed for long. Murmurs began flying between people as the situation came into perspective. Rise Kujikawa, a famous idol, out with a mysterious boy at a restaurant and trying to keep a low profile? This could have been news in the making.

In hindsight, Rise knew she should have seen this coming. She was at a point in her career where her shoulder was constantly being looked over, unlike during her year off. The last thing she needed was publicity over a suspected relationship on top of everything else. "Come on, Astaire-kun." She said, her voice low. "We're leaving."

"As you wish, Ms. Kujikawa." The knight replied with a small bow of the head, having finally calmed down. The two slid their way out from the table and made a hasty retreat towards the door of Hagakure, with Rise keeping her head down and Astaire trying not to look as confused as he felt. He didn't quite understand why they were leaving in such a hurry, but he assumed it was to do with the whispers and mumbles of the rest of the restaurant's patrons. He didn't catch anything specific which was being said, however, as the door of the restaurant opened and let in a torrent of noise and voices from outside. Not wanting to get separated from Rise in the thick crowds, the knight had no choice but to follow after her, post-haste.

Now that they were outside, Astaire had begun to notice that it was not just the restaurant patrons who seemed to be interested in him and Rise, but quite a few people on the street as well. As more and more people began to take notice of the duo, Rise seemed to accelerate down the street at an increasingly quick pace. Unfortunately for her, Astaire wasn't exactly a master of subtlety. As she tried her best to quicken her pace without drawing attention to herself, he dashed after her with demonically quick speed. His arms swung violently from right to left and his footsteps were like small earthquakes as he ran.

With an internal sigh, Rise began to realise that she wasn't going to be able to explain this without great difficulty.

The front door of the hotel flew by as quickly as it had come into view, both Rise and Astaire sprinting as soon as they thought they were out of sight of the public. although only one of them knew why they were doing so. It was only when the duo came to the elevator that took them to Rise's floor that they had stopped. Finally, Astaire thought, a piece of technology he recognised. As the two stopped to catch their respective breaths, the taller of the two stared at the other with a confused expression on his face. "Hah... Would you care to explain... hah... why we were running...?" He asked, clutching his sides as a sharp pain crawled into them from all the full-out sprinting he had done. As he caught his breath, he pried a hand away from his side and tapped on the panel next to the sliding doors to call the elevator. He leaned down again to catch his breath as his stamina slowly returned to him.

"It's complicated... it's sort of a... *gasp*... human thing..." Rise replied between breaths. As the dinging of the elevator's light rung out above them, the two stepped into the small steel box. Astaire took particular notice of the lack of a pressure plate on the base of the box. For a moment he was a little befuddled about how the blasted contraption worked, until he found another set of buttons beside the door. He instinctively pressed the "4" button. He had remembered the floor they had come from rather well, seeing as he had taken the stairs the first time around.

But something struck Rise as strange about his behaviour. "...How did you know to do that?" She asked.

"Do what?"

"The buttons. How'd you know to do that?"

"...I'm not quite sure what you're getting at, Ms. Kujikawa. Buttons are buttons, they're made for pushing, are they not?" The now very confused knight said with a quizzical expression spread across his face.

"...Nevermind." If there was one thing Rise had learned about Astaire over the short time she had known him, it was that he definitely wasn't raised in modern society. He wielded a sword, wore thick plated armour, was terrified of large crowds... this went beyond simple sheltering. Astaire hadn't a single clue about the modern world. And yet, he seemed to know right off the bat how to work an elevator. In fact, now that Rise thought about it, there had been several times now when Astaire had done things which struck her as out of place. What exactly was his story?

She wasn't going to get her answer now, anyway. The elevator came to a halt on the fourth floor and opened its doors. Both knight and idol stepped out into the corridor and turned to head back to Rise's room.

Rise's face went pale. "Oh no..."

Outside of Rise's room, taking up quite a large chunk of the corridor space, was a massive cloud of reporters, tabloid journalists, interviewers and general paparazzi. This was the last thing either she or Astaire needed. She gulped, realising that some very ragtag explanations would have to be put together. Once again, Astaire seemed wary of the large group, and unbuttoned his coat slightly, just wide enough to reach for his bottomless box. "...This is bad news, I take it?" He asked. Rise shook her head in response. She gulped again and began walking towards her room. It didn't take the reporters long to notice her approaching with her mysterious new companion in tow.

"Risette, over here!"

"Kujikawa-san, can we ask you a few questions?!"

"Rise-chan, Rise-chan! Who's your new friend there?!" They bellowed in unison as they began approaching, cameras and notepads held high. What started as a slow walk in their general direction turned into a synchronised run, making sure Risette had no hope of escaping the barrage of questions which the tabloids were dying to have answered. The stampede seemed to rumble the entire building, with thunderous footsteps getting louder and louder as time went on.

Before they could get within hearing distance, Rise leaned in to Astaire's ear. "Whatever you do, you're not my boyfriend."

"B-b-boyfriend?!" Astaire repeated, stammering as his face went red. The implications of such accusations made his newly-beating heart thump in his chest. Either that or he was still recovering from the sprint, either or. "Well obviously I'm not your bloody boyfriend! I'm..." He was cut short as the reporters closed in, showing no signs of stopping.

It was at this time that Astaire got an idea. One he was rather proud of. He quickened his pace, distancing himself from Rise as much as he could before the reporters made contact. His face screwed into one of stern determination, or possibly anger, as he reached inside his coat and, with all his strength, swung out the massive length of metal that was his Zweihander. The blade gleamed as the light hit it, showing its pristine condition as retained by Astaire. The weight of the massive sword took its toll, landing on the floor with a piercing, ear-shattering sound of marble on metal. Astaire now stood in all his glory, wielding his favourite weapon and acting as a human shield for Rise.

Time seemed to stop as everyone in the corridor processed what had just happened. All the reporters who had been so eager to bombard Rise with questions stopped in their tracks as they came face to face with the sharp orange eyes of Knight Astaire. Cameras began flashing, catching Rise's shocked expression behind the boy in the blue coat. The sound of flashes going off was the only noise made, however. Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Until finally, someone broke the silence.

"State your business here!" Astaire demanded, bringing his Zweihander up and setting it on his shoulder. It took everyone a couple of seconds to come up with a response.

Finally, one reported managed to speak up. "W-we had some questions for R-Rise-chan..."

"Had this been scheduled?" Turning around, Astaire faced Rise with a serious expression, which finally gave way to a devious wink. Not sure where he was going with this, but deciding to play along anyway, Rise shook her head wordlessly. "Only those with priorly arranged engagements may speak with Ms. Kujikawa. Begone, the lot of you!" He said with a swipe of his hand. All but one of the reporters stepped back as he did this. The sole reporter, a middle-aged fellow, stepped forward to challenge Astaire's order.

He stared up at Astaire, being a good few inches shorter than him. "And who the hell are you to say whether we can speak to Risette or not?!"

Astaire answered his question with a violent kick to the stomach, knocking the man flat on the floor. Suddenly bereft of his courage, the man stared up at the imposing figure of the fellow with the massive sword. His face seemed to darken, while his eyes seemed to blaze as bright as a bonfire. "I am Knight Astaire, Ms. Kujikawa's bodyguard. As her appointed guardian, I advise you to adhere to my previous demand." He emphasised his point by bringing his sword off his shoulder and letting the end of the blade slam into the ground once again, several inches off the reporter's arm. "If you don't part and let us pass, I shall part you myself."

Taking a step forward, Astaire was glad to see that the large group did indeed press against the wall as he approached. "Come now, Ms. Kujikawa. We have pressing matters to attend to." He turned and held out an arm to Rise, which she approached cautiously, smiling nervously at the reporters she passed. They seemed to look at Astaire with both confusion and anxiousness, but seemed to leer at her and cast her scared glances. She could do little more than try not to dwell on it for now, walking past Astaire and letting him take up his spot behind her, slinging his sword over his shoulder once again.

Astaire opened the hotel door and held it open for his new protectee, who entered quickly and without a word. He gave the reporters, who had been frozen to the wall the entire time, a quick glance before entering himself, shutting the door firmly behind him. Rise sat on her bed, looking up at Astaire with an expression he couldn't quite place. Something told him, however, that an explanation was in order. "...Well." He started, chuckling. "They certainly won't think I'm your boyfriend now, will they?" He couldn't help it, he burst out laughing as he stuffed his sword back into his coat.

He heard a chuckle creep up Rise's throat, and eventually she too raised a hand to her mouth as she began lightly laughing along with Astaire's hearty chortles. She had to admit, of all the excuses she had considered, a bodyguard hadn't been one of them. She wasn't quite sure why either, considering Astaire seemed to be as handy with a sword as he was, especially one so imposing. As the two calmed down, they realised that while they had successfully escaped any further hindrance from the reporters, they had essentially barricaded themselves inside. Nearly every person in the local vicinity was likely to flock to the hotel after seeing Rise run inside with Astaire in tow. "So... what do we do now?" The blue-coated knight asked as he pulled up a chair and sat down at the small table by the room's window.

Rise pouted and put a finger to her lips, her brow lowering as she tried to think of something to do in the hotel room. She didn't have many things with her that were of any interest, especially since she usually packed so light, meaning...

"...Hmm." Rise let out the low hum as an idea came to her, one which fit very well with the circumstances presented. She sat down opposite Astaire and pointed to his chest. "Could you show me what else you have in that box of yours?" Truth be told, after seeing him pull an entire set of armour out, there could have been anything inside. Items from another dimension, which couldn't be found in this world... there was an air of mystery which surrounded the little box, and Rise wanted to investigate further.

Luckily for her, Astaire was more than happy to oblige. "It seems that some things from Lordran didn't carry over into this world," He explained, bringing to mind his missing Darksign. "So I'm curious to see what all I've brought over with me and which things have gone astray." He set the bottomless box out on the table in front of him, lifting open the lid and shoving his entire arm inside. "Righto, start with the basics, I guess." He said, lifting out several bolts of cloth in the one hand.

Rise picked up one of the bits of cloth, noticing they were all similarly shaped. They had been tied off at the top, and were slightly frayed around the bottom. "These are talismans." Astaire explained, lifting the closest one and raising it above his head. "They're used for casting Miracles, and they're rather important for we Warriors of Sunlight."

Casting... miracles? "What do you mean? What ARE miracles?" Rise asked with one eyebrow raised. Without a word, Astaire opened the window, which was rather tall and led out to a small balcony. He parted his legs and raised his arm once again as he continued talking.

"I was no expert caster, but I did have a favourite miracle. 'Twas called "Sunlight Spear."" As he spoke, he failed to notice the tingling sensation which ran through his fingers as he clutched the talisman tight in his hand. "You'd raise your arm like this, making a similar pose, and if you were lucky..." He pointed out into the distance with his free hand. "...You could hit something as far away as that building over there." Rise squinted, making out a small dot on the horizon, which she assumed to be a lighthouse on the edge of the city.

Without warning, Astaire felt his muscles take over as he instinctively tightened his hold on the cloth, feeling a familiar feeling seep out of his fingers as he did. A bright light emanated from above him, taking the form of a huge bolt of lightning standing inches from his head. "Oh. My miracles work." Astaire said, in a tone which didn't sound entirely reassuring to Rise. She hid her eyes under her palms as the bright light assaulted her vision, threatening to blind her if she wasn't careful. "Not to worry, not to worry! All I have to do is..."

The light left the room as quickly as it had come as Astaire tossed it, javelin-style, out the window and into the distance. Fortunately, it didn't come into contact with the lighthouse. He did say it was only if he was lucky, after all.

"How the heck did you do that?!" Asked a frantic Rise. When she asked him to pull things out of his box, she hadn't been expecting bolts of lightning made from bolts of cloth. "You could have set the room on fire if you weren't careful!"

"Pah!" A dismissive hand was waved by Astaire. "Sunlight Spear doesn't set things on fire, don't you worry! That's what pyromancy was for!" As the string of bad/good luck continued for Rise and Astaire respectively, the latter's hand began once again releasing a steady stream of smoke, much like it had done back in the restaurant.

Before Rise could even begin to say anything, the knight's right hand burst into flame. A flame which didn't spread, but instead sat in a large smouldering ball within Astaire's fingers. "Let me guess..." Rise began backing towards the other end of the room, closer to the door. "...That's pyromancy?" The fact that she didn't get an answer was troubling.

Seemingly mystified by the flame in his hand, Astaire examined it closer. His eyes widened as he seemed to come to a realisation. "...Chaos Pyromancy." He murmured, closing his fist and extinguishing the flame. "...Something is definitely wrong here."

"You're throwing lightning bolts out of my window and holding fireballs! What part of that was ever NOT wrong?!"

"Well, aside from that. I suppose." It seemed that Astaire was more concerned with his powers than his well-being, for reasons beyond Rise's comprehension. "Chaos Pyromancies can only be learned by Chaos Servants. As a Warrior of Sunlight, I shouldn't be able to use this."

"You don't remember learning it before?"

"No, I don't. I'm not even sure how I managed to use it there now. It just sort of... came to me."

The last part caught Rise's attention. She was beginning to have her suspicions about the knight. Either he was trying to hide something or there was something at work which had messed with his head in Lordran. In any case, she knew of one person who might have been able to help her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the person who burst through the door at exactly that moment.

It was her manager, Inoue. "Riseyou'reinalotoftrouble." He blabbed out with barely enough air left to breath. He seemed to have gone completely off the deep end for whatever reason, and Rise could only imagine why as she glanced towards her companion. "I just got a call from one of my contacts saying that-"

"And just who are you?" Both manager and idol let out a small squeal as the pointed tip of Astaire's sword found its way to Inoue's throat.

"Oh no," was Rise's initial thought, "I never told him about Inoue-san..."

Pushing away the blade carefully and grabbing both of his arms, Rise managed to stop Astaire from splitting her manager from head to toe. "He's okay! Inoue-san's my manager, he's a good person!" Without a word, the sword disappeared back into Astaire's coat. He seemed to have gathered the contents of the bottomless box up rather quickly and placed it back in its normal place. For a bulking knight with a massive sword, Astaire was fast.

As Inoue calmed down and recovered from seeing his life flash before his eyes, he got back to the matter at hand. "Now... I don't want you to take this the wrong way... Sir... but you're kind of the problem here." Luckily, as a knight Astaire was more than dignified enough to admit when he was at fault. He said nothing and let the nervous-looking suited gentleman continue. "Well, it wasn't so bad at first. Boyfriend rumours, stuff like that. We've dealt with that before, that's fine." From his breast pocket, Inoue produced several raw photographs, showing the scene which had erupted in the hallway a few minutes ago. "This is going to be a little harder to explain."

Word had spread fast, it seemed. Then again, as Rise's manager, it was very unlikely that Inoue would have gone for very long without hearing about the swordsman following her around and threatening the press. "What are people saying, Inoue-san...?" It was a question that Rise wasn't sure she wanted answered, but she supposed she would find out either way, whether she liked it or not.

"Several photos have already gone up online of you two, before... this came about. Cell phone pictures mostly, nothing special. It's the tabloids I'm worried about. Who knows what they'll make of this..."

"I assure you, Mr. Inoue, that I shall take full responsibility for my actions. I acted on my own impulsiveness, and for that I apologise. If it is true that I am the cause of such an uproar, then I shall put everyone's minds at ease once and for all."

"Are you sure, Astaire-kun? I think you might be better-"

"I insist upon it! What kind of man would I be if I didn't see my actions through to the end? Rest assured, Ms. Kujikawa, I shall handle this with the utmost care."

That was easy to say, considering Astaire had never dealt with the press before. Well, not without his sword anyway.

Inoue cleared his throat, catching the knight's attention. "So, uh... who ARE you, exactly?"

Placing a hand on his chest and giving a low bow, Astaire gave his reply. "Apologies. I am Knight Astaire, and as of today I am tasked with guarding Ms. Kujikawa. Sorry for nearly lopping you in two, by the way."

The explanation raised many more questions than it answered. However, Inoue decided to focus on the one which interested him most right now. "Rise's bodyguard? Since when?"

"Since approximately 10 minutes ago. Ms. Kujikawa stressed the importance of not allowing people to come under the impression that we were... intimate, and thusly, I decided to bestow a fitting title upon myself as justification for my being here."

Well... at least the boyfriend rumours would be quick to dissipate. "Uh-huh." Inoue creased his brow in frustration as he tried to deal with the situation calmly. There were so many questions to ask and so much to take in, and he would have to know everything if he was to deal with Rise's little blunder fully. "You said you were a knight... and something about sunlight warriors?"

"Indeed. The Warriors of Sunlight dedicate themselves partly to helping others in need, you see. I carry the title of "Knight" as a result of this. I have assisted several souls in the past when it was required, if only for a brief time." Astaire explained, hoisting out his sword once again and slinging it over his shoulder.

So he was a mercenary of some sort? How the hell had Rise come across someone like him? As far as Inoue was aware, she had been in her bedroom for most of the day, excluding her little outing with this Knight fellow. Was it someone she met in Inaba? No, definitely not, he had seen Rise with her friends several times before, but this young man had never been there for any of those times. Looking into his eyes, Inoue could sense something similar to resolve and loyalty lingering behind them, much like the boy Rise had been so fond of back in Inaba, the one with the grey hair. He didn't seem like a bad person thus far, attempted throat-slitting notwithstanding, as far as he was concerned he had been acting as a bodyguard up until then.

"...Well, Knight Astaire... I hope you'll stay true to your word for now, at least. If you do, you'll have a LOT to put up with for a while, but if you work with me and Rise, you might be able to get through it. I hope you'll be able to, anyway." It was true, the press were a vulturous bunch at the best of times, to the point where dealing with them and the misunderstandings they caused could fatigue even veterans of the showbiz industry, nevermind someone like Astaire who... wasn't a veteran. However, Inoue was sure that Rise wouldn't allow him to cause her any undue trouble, lest she attract any undue attention to go along with it.

"Your concern is both appreciated and noted, Mr. Inoue."

...But besides that, one thing was annoying him. "...Where did you say you were from, Astaire-san? I can't help but notice you've been saying Miss and Mister quite a lot since I've met you."

"Oh, my homeland? Well..." Oh dear, one more thing Astaire couldn't remember.

Sensing that he was on the verge of nearly burning his head in two again, Rise slipped up behind Inoue and hastened him towards the door. "Well, as long as he's here, where he comes from isn't important, right? I'm sure you two can talk all about it later, and besides, don't you have something to do for Kanami right now?"

"AAGH! THE MOVIE SHOOT!" Taking off like a suited-up bullet, Inoue rushed out the door and slammed it behind him. He did however take the time to open it immediately afterwards, and with a quick "Nice meeting you!" took off down the hallway again. If there was one thing Rise could give her self-appointed rival Kanami credit for, it was keeping Inoue busy when it most mattered. With him out of the way, she turned to a freshly-relaxed Astaire, who resumed his place at the table once again. He gazed out the window, watching the sun go down over the horizon.

"Funny. I haven't seen the sunset in quite a long time. Not a real one, anyway." One thing Rise had noticed about Astaire was that he wasn't very good at providing context when he said things.

The setting sun did bring to mind a new dilemma, however. "...Astaire-kun. This room only has one bed." It took him a few seconds to realise what she was getting at. His face went a shade closer to red as he buried his face in his hands and tried to think of a solution. "There isn't really anywhere else to sleep, though... I doubt spending the night in a bathtub would be awfully comfortable."

"I could sleep on the floor. This material that's coating it right now is a damned sight softer than anything Lordran had to offer." He didn't seem to be joking either. One other thing which Astaire couldn't recall was the last time he actually had a good night's sleep. All he could remember was running around tirelessly while occasionally sitting down at a bonfire or two. Having a soft floor to lie on was a godsend by comparison.

The situation seemed to have resolved itself rather easily, thankfully. Rise dreaded to imagine the look on the public's collective faces if she was found sleeping in the same bed as her self-proclaimed bodyguard. "Well, if you're okay with it, I guess... I'm gonna go get changed in the meantime, don't go peeking, now!"

"P-p-peeking?! I would never! I am not so uncouth that I would-" Yet another thing which Rise had noticed about Astaire was that he was rather fun to tease. Despite being very devoted to his cause as a knight, it appeared that the slightest hint of risque implications was enough to get him hot under the collar and uncharacteristically flustered. She giggled to herself as she thought about it.

"Heehee... I'm just kidding, Astaire-kun. I'm sure you're more decent than that, anyway." She added, grabbing her pyjamas from her suitcase and walking into the small en suite bathroom. She flashed a smile at Astaire before she shut the door behind her. "He's so cute when he's embarrassed." She mumbled to herself.

* * *

Later that night, Rise lay staring at the ceiling, trying to get to sleep and utterly failing in that regard. It also didn't help that she hadn't packed any revealing items of clothing before leaving home, meaning her sleepwear wasn't exactly breezy. She rolled over and snatched up her phone from her bedside table, quickly searching through her contacts trying to find the email address of someone she had been meaning to talk to.

Finally, she found it. She began typing her message to Naoto, who she was sure would also be up this late.

"Naoto-kun, are you busy right now?"

It didn't take long for Naoto to answer, she seemed very adept with a cellphone.

"Not especially, I have time to talk, if that is what you desire."

Naoto brushed aside the case files she had laid about the desk, rubbing her strained eyes as she retreated back to her bed and threw herself on top of the covers. She tapped the light switch next to the headboard and covered her eyes, letting them rest after scanning several book's worth of case details. Paperwork was necessary, and Naoto didn't mind doing it in the slightest, but it could take a toll on even the most enthusiastic detectives from time to time. This was one of those times.

"Awesome! Anyway, do you remember the guy we met inside the TV?"

"Astaire-san, right? Yes, I remember him, why do you ask?"

"He came out of my TV today! One thing led to another and now he's my bodyguard."

"He did what?"

Naoto had had a difficult time trying to piece together what had happened after the events which took place within the TV. Astaire had stabbed his shadow, looked dumbfounded for a few seconds and then everything had disappeared. Everyone had found themselves outside the respective TVs which they had entered through, with no sign of the manic knight anywhere. There had been a moment of panic when everyone realised this, and indeed Teddie had been sat up whenever he could trying to find him.

"He came out of the TV! Didn't Yu-kun tell you? They talked to each other earlier..."

"He didn't. I can only imagine why."

"Well, whatever. Anyway, I wanted to ask you some things about him, if that's alright."

"Why me? You likely know the most about him out of everyone."

"Well, it's not really about him, it's more about some of the things he's doing..."

It took a while, but Rise managed to list off everything which Astaire had done which didn't seem right in her eyes. Knowing how to eat with chopsticks straight out, how to operate a phone, how to use an elevator... Rise couldn't see it, but the more she explained, the higher Naoto's eyebrows went up her head. Her curiosity was officially piqued.

"Hmm. Indeed, now that I think about it, there were several things which seemed odd about him."

"He doesn't seem to know he's doing it, either! Even if I asked him, he wouldn't be able to give me a straight answer..."

"This sounds intriguing. I would suggest bringing it up with everyone tomorrow."

"...Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?"

"You weren't informed? Due to our recent exploits, Yu-senpai found that we were surprisingly close together when he left through his own television. Seeing this, he thought it very likely that we could travel long distances by using the Shadow World."

"Wow, really? What about the shadows and stuff?"

"Senpai is a competent fighter in his own regard, and you will likely have Astaire-san to assist you during the journey. In any case, it isn't impossible to assume that this could be a reliable way of getting from place to place in very little time."

"Awesome... so we're all meeting tomorrow? At Junes, right?"

"You guessed correctly. Whatever the case may be, I urge you to be careful tomorrow. Astaire-san may have been a warrior for a living, but he doesn't have a persona. Keep that in mind."

"Sure. Goodnight, Naoto-kun."

Her mind now at ease and her heart freshly racing, Rise snapped her phone shut and set it back where it belonged. Finally, a way to see her friends again in spite of the distance between them! This had been the best thing she'd heard all day! This would also be a good opportunity for Astaire to make friends with everyone, seeing as his initial response to meeting new people today had ranged from stiffening up to nearly striking them down.

Rise rolled onto her side and once again shut her eyes, thoughts of all of her friends fresh in her mind. A small smile crept across her face as she pictured Astaire greeting everyone, the sun blazing down on them as they enjoyed their time together peacefully. No more murders, no more barriers caused by work, everything was just as she could have wanted.

For now, at least.


End file.
